Dungeon Keeper Gothic
by gothicjedi666
Summary: Upon his death a normally well meaning Nerd is given the chance to embrace the darkness that has until now remained hidden in his heart. Freed from guilt and shame his lust of power, wealth and sexual gratification can be explored as he becomes one of many new Dungeon Keepers. Now follow his journey as he goes from one of many Keepers to the greatest of them all. Warnings inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Warnings.**

**Torture, mayhem, violence, enslavement, extreme sexual situations, swearing and other naughty things that society frowns upon. **

**This is pretty much another version of my Overlord Gothic story which I want to keep writing but its getting harder to write because I'm running out of ideas. Plus if I write this story I can make the main character really evil and cruel in ways that Overlord Gothic wasn't really suited to. **

**Plot **

**Upon his death a normally well meaning Nerd is given the chance to embrace the darkness that has until now remained hidden in his heart. Freed from guilt and shame his lust for power, wealth and sexual gratification can be explored as he becomes one of many new Dungeon Keepers. **

**Follow his journey as he goes from one of many Keepers to the greatest of them all by exploring what it means to be evil and by destroying everything that stands in his way. **

**Author Note:**

**I needed to rewrite the story as I made a few mistakes and I wanted to explore the idea of Keepers become inhuman in form but that didn't make sense if the Keeper's can chose their physical form so a quick rewrite was in order. **

**Dungeon Keeper Gothic. **

**Part One. **

Gothic's Dungeon. Below 21st Century Earth.

Well if this was the afterlife then it was really overrated. Rather than see the Pearly Gates or even the fires of Hell I was instead sitting in the dark seeing nothing at all and feeling rather chilly.

Despite the fact that I'd just died after being hit by a speeding car I didn't seem to be dead at all. I could feel my heart beating and I could hear myself breathing. As my lungs took in needed oxygen I noticed that the air seemed stagnate like I was in a stuffy old room were the windows had been closed for to long.

Picking myself up my hands touched the floor and it was cold, hard rock that felt rough and uneven. Like the ground in a cave.

If I was deep inside a cave that would explain the foul air and the total lack of light but it didn't explain a lot of other things, like what had happened to me after the car hit me.

I was so sure that I had died but if was alive I should be in a hospital not in a dirty cave. I should be hooked up to machines and have doctors poking me, but I felt fine in fact if anything I felt great. I'd not felt this full of energy since I was a child at play.

Now standing up I decided to explore my surroundings. Just because I couldn't see anything didn't mean I could find my way around. I had four other senses after all and they seemed to be working. I was pretty sure that my eyesight was working and that I wasn't blind but as I wasn't wearing my glasses it might not of mattered if there was any light around here.

Slowly I moved forward keeping my arms stretched out in front of me so that I didn't walk right into anything. Walking slowly I soon found a rough wall that well made of rock seemed a little to flat to be natural. Perhaps I was in an abandoned mine rather than a cave.

Taking a few deep breathes to help ward off panic I followed the wall hoping that it might led to a way out but it only led to another wall. I repeated this action until I discovered that I was in room with what seemed to be four walls of equal size. This was definitely not natural.

Now I couldn't help put panic a little as it seemed as if I was sealed inside a room with solid walls and do door.

I calmed myself and tried to think. I was smarter than the average bear after all and while I was no genius I should be able to figure this out.

Logically there had to be a way into this room or whatever it was otherwise how could I have gotten into it. I reasoned that it was possible that I was dropped into the space but given how dark it was there had to be a roof. To check this I jumped with the palms of my hands facing up. I felt nothing so I jumped higher again. This time my fingertips felt something so I jumped again with my fingers pointing up and I did feel something, more cold rock.

I tried not to despair at this discovery but it was hard to not feel depressed. It seemed as if I was truly sealed in a square shaped room and surrounded by rock. This was really bad news and not just because it meant I was trapped.

Moving around the small room again I tried to find any sort of breeze and when I did I came to realise how much trouble I was in.

If this room was perfectly sealed, which is seemed to be, it meant that I limited amount of time before the air I was breathing could no longer keep me alive. I couldn't calculate how long that would be and given that I'd woken up in this place it would pointless to try as I didn't know how long I had been here before waking up. In fact I was rather surprised that I was still alive given how awful the air seemed to be.

I suddenly realised that while I had explored the walls and touched the roof I hadn't actually tried to find out if there was anything in the middle of the room. I'd feel very foolish if I discovered there was a trapdoor or maybe a ladder leading somewhere at the centre of the room but it would be more foolish not to find out.

Slowly I edged my way towards what I guessed was the centre of the room. Carefully I moved one foot in front of the other making sure that my feet were on firm ground before making another step.

My feet stepped on something that didn't feel like rock so I leant down to touch it. This part of the ground was smooth and warm. It felt like some of glass or maybe crystal. I explored the material for a few moments trying to find out its dimensions.

Before I could discover the shape and size of whatever it was it began to glow. It was the first light and seen in some time and then only reason it didn't hurt my eyes was because it was so dim.

Still dim or not any light in this dismal place was a gift from the heavens. I smiled once the light began to pulse and grow stronger. The rhythm of the pulsing was like a heartbeat that matched my own and as the light became brighter I became even more energised than before.

Using this source of illumination to my advantage I looked around and saw that my inspection of this place had been spot on. The room was square, made of stone and I was completely sealed in. Oddly confirming my earlier worry didn't bring back any panic. In the light of the glowing, pulsing crystal that was embedded in the ground I felt rather good like I had my own personal sun.

Still being sealed in small room wasn't a good thing and adding light hadn't exposed an exit from this place. So if I wanted out of this place I'd have to dig a way out. Which wasn't going to be easy given that I had no tools and that I was surrounded by rock. In fact it would be impossible the walls around me were just to thick.

The crystal thing started to hum a little at the point it grew brighter and I was drawn back to it. I got the feeling that it was charging up somehow as the pulses were getting stronger. I watched this for a while and I could swear that the red crystal half buried in the ground was getting slightly bigger as the pulses grew stronger.

Time I couldn't measure, as I never wore a watch, passed and the crystal grew taking up more space and I worried that I might run out of room to stand upon, but the growing stopped and pulse became a steady beat much like that of my own heart.

The crystal was warm and I felt a urge to reach out and touch it despite the fact that it the heat coming off it might be hot enough to burn me if I did so. The urge grew stronger and I foolishly made contact with the crystal.

For a second or two nothing happened but then the crystal pulsed greater than ever before. Some sort of energy entered me and I was thrown into the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of me. But that was only the physical reaction something far more amazing happened in my mind. I felt knowledge enter my brain as if years of experience of learning was crammed into me much like a computer download only it hurt.

When I recovered I stood up and smiled once again. I now understood what was going on and while I still had no idea how I'd gotten to this place or why this was all happening I did know what I now was and what I could do.

I was a Dungeon Keeper just like in the games. In fact it was exactly like in the games. I had to accept this as a fact even while still wondering why this was happening. The info that had been crammed into my head by the red glowing crystal didn't have any answers for me it just told me what I was capable off.

So I now had two choices I could either stand around here pondering the nature of my existence until something happened or I go what I remembered doing when playing the game and build a Dungeon.

In the end I realised I really had to choice at all. I'd go insane down here by myself and I doubted that I become a Keeper just by chance. There was a reason for all of this and I'd never discover that reason if I stood here doing nothing.

Knowing that I'd need Imps, which were the builder units for this game, I tried to access the information that had been downloaded into my brain. The knowledge came to me upon request and I soon knew everything there was to know about Imps.

Imps weren't really alive, at least not in the same way a Human being is, they are magical constructs magical energy or as it sometimes called mana is shaped into the form of an Imps via the Spell called 'Create Imp'.

Somehow the Spell focuses the mana turning energy into matter and then it shapes the Mana to create an Imp. Since the Imp isn't truly alive it doesn't require food, water or rest, however an Imp is a small but consent drain on a Keeper's mana. The more Imps you have the more it drains you, but you need Imps to expand a Dungeon and expanding a Dungeon increases your mana levels meaning you have more magical energy. Much like how you have to spend to make money, you have to spend mana to make mana. Magical energy is not only a Keeper's life blood its also his currency.

So with this in mind I used the Spell to create an Imp. The creature appeared in a puff of smoke and I took a moment to examine it. The Imp was small about half my size, maybe a little less, and seemed to lack any means of communication as it simply stared at me with a blank expression.

Oddly enough it had been created with the tools it needed for its work already supplied it carried a small pickaxe and had a bag full of other tools across its back. The creature seemed ready to work but I had no idea how to command it.

In the game you got a bird's eye view of your Dungeon and the ability to select what you wanted done. If you wanted a room made you just highlighted a rocky area, the Imps cleared some space, did a funny little dance to claim the now empty space and then just decided what room you wanted built at the cost of gold. But I couldn't do that while in a Human body and I couldn't just picture it in my mind because I had no idea what was around me behind the four walls I could see.

An idea struck me and I knelt down and touched the Heart with the palms of my hands. Suddenly I wasn't in my body in fact I could see my body it was kneeling down and touching the Heart but I currently wasn't occupying it. The whole thing was like an out of body experience but I had the ability to control how I viewed things rather than just float helplessly above the scene.

Examining what I saw I noticed that like in the game the Imp had the number one floating above its ahead and around that number was a red circle. This displayed the creature's health and level. I didn't know why it was displayed this way, perhaps it was just how the Keeper oversaw his domain or maybe it was like this because I expected to be this way.

What surprised me was that I also had a circle above my head with the number one in it . My circle was bigger and it was gold rather than red. I was confused by this as I thought that a Keeper could only die if their Dungeon Heart was destroyed but my body had health.

More knowledge came to the front of my mind and I discovered that my physical body could be killed but that after a while I'd be able to reform the body using a great amount of magical energy. Restoring the body cost more mana if you were a higher level but well worth as there were a lot of fun things you could do in life if you had Human form.

After absorbing this knowledge I decided to get to work. It didn't take me long to figure out what to do next. I mentally selected all the rock around the Dungeon Heart and once it was removed (an task that didn't take very long) I had doubled the amount of space in the Heart Chamber.

The solid rock that had to me until moments ago formed the walls of my prison had been broken down quickly by the Imp. The little creature easily destroyed layers of harden rock and the remains were transformed into vapour that quickly faded away.

Somehow the matter that had made up the rock seemed to have been vaporised by the looks of things. Which was very cool as it made it things a lot easier. Normally when you dug underground you had to move dirt and stone around, and you had to put up something to ensure that the whole thing didn't collapse on you but the Imps didn't seem to need any of that stuff. Which was great because I knew nothing about tunnelling underground and would of killed myself had I been doing the work.

The Imps did there funny little dance and claimed the dug out space for me. After they'd done that I noticed that the drain on my mana was lessening. It seemed that more space I claimed the faster my mana recharged. Creating that one Imp hadn't been a great drain, in fact until I'd let go of my body I hadn't even noticed it so I made three more Imps, giving me four which would be more than enough to start with.

After a bit of experimentation I discover that not only could I change the angle of how I saw things I could also go higher giving me a view of more things, it was sort of like zooming out when looking at a picture saved on a computer. I got a better picture of my surroundings at the expense of seeing the details.

I located what I guessed to be a vein of metal, it was to dark to see the colour of the metal so in order to find out what it was I had the Imps mine it. The rock disappeared but the mineral remained and the Imps soon moved the small pile of metal to the Dungeon Heart were it would be kept until I built a room to store it.

The metal wasn't gold but that wasn't surprising as gold is rarer than most metals which is one of the reason why people use it as a currency. I zoomed in to examine the material and realised that it was iron a common metal but useful stuff.

Any civilization above that of cavemen needed metals like iron in order to build tools. I assumed that once I had a workshop set up and Trolls to work in that the metal would be used to build weapons and such.

Taking a look around I spied a bit more metal and had that mined too. Like the iron this metal was placed by the Dungeon Heart as if some sort of offering. Which seemed right to me as I had created the Imps so it made sense that they would see me as some sort of god.

I didn't want the Heart chamber to get cluttered so I got to work on creating my first room. I got the Imps the start digging a long tunnel that went on for a while bit I no idea how far it went as I had no sense of scale.

At the end of this passage way I had some rock dug out and the Imps claimed the space. The tunnel floor was divided into square tiles that would be large enough for me to sit down in. The room was three tiles in length and width. I guessed also that was equally as high but from this viewpoint it was impossible to tell.

Trying to work out the dimensions of the space I'd had cleared made me wish I'd paid more attention in maths class. Teachers might be lying when they say you will need to learn things like algebra but being able to work out the area of a rectangle could actually be helpful as it gave you an idea of the size of a place.

Ignoring this for now I mentally selected one of what I called blueprints. I knew that a storeroom needed to be three tiles by three tiles in order to store anything in it. So I didn't need to mine more rock. The Imps upon my mental command made the storeroom appear and I felt my mana levels drop as each tile changed.

By the end of this the room had gone from containing nothing to being what I expected a store room to look like. The Imps hadn't just smoothed out the walls and floor, the process had created shelves

and storage containers. The little builder units moved the metals they'd mined into the containers making sure not to mix the metals up.

Creating this small room had cost me a great amount of mana but it was well worth the effect as I now had my first room. I felt a sense of accomplishment when this task was completed and when I moved my awareness back to the Heart Chamber I noticed that the number one floating above my head had changed to the number two.

While I was pleased by my levelling up I knew that it wouldn't so easy to repeat that feat as gaining each level higher would require greater amounts of what gamers called XP or experience points. I had no way of measuring how much XP I had or how much had been gained by building one room. I'd just have to keep going if I wanted to level up further.

But before I could do that I needed to wait for my mana to recharge. Making that room had cost me a lot of energy rather than gold as in the game which made sense to me as what was there to spend gold on down here. Instead it cost me magic and time to make things which were the only things I could spend down here.

Once my mana had recharged I thought about what to make next. A treasury seemed sensible as with all this digging around I was bound to find some silver, gold or maybe even jewels sooner or later.

Other metals like iron and bronze would be used to build weapons and tools as I knew from my studies of history that early man had used those metals and since Dungeon Keeper was medieval in setting they might be the best materials I'd get to work with. I knew that steel was better for such things but I had no idea how to make steel but the Trolls might however I wouldn't find if they did until I got some of them working for me.

To get some Trolls working for me I'd need a workshop but before that I needed to make lairs and a hatchery as there was no point in the Trolls coming here unless I had the means to support them. Which meant giving them a place to sleep and food to eat.

I created another tunnel which branched off from the first one and went in a different direction. I did this because I wanted to keep the living areas separate from the work areas. And I wanted to keep all of that stuff away from the Heart as that was were I would be living from now on.

Thinking about that I had to wonder if I needed to eat or sleep any more only time would tell if I did. If I did in fact require sleep I would need to make a private lair for myself and hopefully that would come with some sort of bed.

The knowledge in mind assured that this was possible there were blueprints for things like throne rooms and private quarters. These plans seemed to be quite simple things and any sort of customisation would require the efforts of a creature other than an Imp. Perhaps I could find such items on the surface.

It then struck me that I didn't know what was on the surface. I hadn't until now given the subject any thought. What was on the surface? My world or the world Dungeon Keeper was set on?.

I'd find out if I ever breeched the surface but before I did that I would need to attract some creatures so that if there were hostile Humans on the surface I would at least have some monsters to help me fight them.

Next I had the Imps make a large lair which less taxing on the mana that I'd thought it would be. Despite the rooms large size it was empty. The only real different was that the ground was softer and the walls smoother. A few flaming torches were added but it remained mostly dark.

After that came what I could only call underground farms. I spent nearly all of my mana creating a huge room that was filled with mushrooms (yuck) that glowed in the dark and fenced up pens full of rats. I had a feeling that should be chickens but they wouldn't last long underground were as rats would. I was also glad I'd built this room so far from the Heart as I didn't want to spend too much time around rats and mushrooms.

Okay so I now had the basics set up. If I'd done things right some sort of low level creature should arrive seeking to serve me. I waited for a while, not only for my mana to recharge but also for some creature to turn up but nothing happened. I must be forgetting something what hadn't I done right?.

Portals! There were portals in that game, that was how the creatures entered the Keeper's Dungeon. I must need them too. So now I just had to find one and then creatures would start to appear.

Expanding my senses I reached out and tried to find these portals but there was nothing but darkness beyond the space I had claimed. I could neither hear nor see anything out there. Seeing what was out there would require the Evil Eye spell if I remembered right and get that spell I needed Warlocks to research in the libraries. But to get Warlocks I needed to find a portal.

More lengths of time that was unmeasurable passed and I found something interesting, rock that seemed to be tougher than anything I'd encountered up until now. I couldn't sense anything beyond it so it seemed logical to me that if there were any portals around here then they'd be behind that dense stone. Otherwise I should have been able to find it before now.

The Imps took a while to get around the thick rock but I was working in three dimensions so in the end I found a way around the barrier and into a new part of the world I found myself in. And I also found a portal.

At first I felt glee at this discovery. This portal was a way out of where ever the hell I was now, as well as a way for in other things. I was tempted to return to my body and walk through the portal but the knowledge in my mind warned me against this action. My life was tied to the Dungeon Heart so leaving it unguarded would be a very stupid idea. Plus I had no idea what was on the other side of that portal or even if was a two way portal. I could easily find myself some place worse and end up getting stuck there.

I tried to urge an Imp to go through the portal to act as a scout but it either wouldn't or couldn't do such a thing. After thinking about it I figured that the Imps were tied to the Dungeon Heart and therefore they were as trapped here.

Going over the info that had been crammed into my head I discovered that the Imps were tied to the Heart and would simply cease to exist if they got to far away from their source of power. I would be fine if I left this world but unless I took my Dungeon Heart with me it would be unprotected and I would too would be cut off from the source of my power.

However if I captured another Keeper's Heart (assuming there were other Keepers out there) then I could travel to other worlds with that new Heart. This would allow me to set up Dungeons elsewhere and give me somewhere to fall back to should the Heart I was currently bound to be destroyed.

So then, if I couldn't get out then I'd just have to get people to come to me. All I had to do was make my new home as inviting as possible and then wait.

Working on this I accessed the blueprints and decided to make a library as Warlocks were an important of any Keeper's Dungeon. Without them I'd never learn some of the best spells and having fireball throwing magic users around would be handy if my Dungeon got invaded.

I waited for a long time (I assumed) for something to come through the portal and my patience was rewarded.

A person came through the portal I knew it as soon as they arrived. I shifted my presence to the portal and saw what seemed to be a Warlock. Purple robes, staff and even a goatee, yeah that was a Warlock.

I watched the Warlock as he settled in feeling like I was playing one of those Sim games. He seemed to know what he was doing and I watched as he emptied a bag he carried and placed a few books on one of the empty shelves.

This action at least explained where the books came from. They hadn't appeared when I'd built the library which made sense to me as the blueprints were basic things that could barely make adequate furnishings for a room.

The Warlock sat down at a desk and started writing. I had no idea what he was writing but somehow I knew that he was working on a Spell. I hoped that it was a Spell which gave me some fire-power because as I was I had no chance of defending myself should my Heart come under threat.

To make the researcher's life easier I pictured a few rooms that the Warlock might need and went about having them made, uncaring that this would drain most of my mana and leave me unable to act again for a while.

I made a bigger lair/bedroom which had an en-suite bathroom for the Warlock and then created another corridor branching out from the tunnel that linked all the smaller bedrooms. Branching off from this new corridor was a very basic kitchen and a proper hatchery, with chickens and everything.

I was a little worried that the Warlock wouldn't be able to live off chicken alone but it was a step up from mushrooms and rats at least. I was a bit limited on what food I could create as it wasn't as if I ever learned about how people could live underground. All my knowledge of farming and food gathering was only useful in places with sunlight and soil. Down here in the dark without sunlight and fertile soil my options were a lot more limited.

Living on a diet of mushrooms and fungus didn't sound like much fun to me but I knew that if I lived on chicken alone for long enough even raw mushrooms would start to seem like a tempting meal.

To distract myself from this worry I spent what mana I had on making some more rooms. I used ideas either mine or granted from whatever knowledge source I seem to be unlocking as I grew stronger to make these rooms.

Blueprints for rooms featuring entertainment filled my mind. A casino, a bar and even what could pass for a pool hall were made, all branching off from another long corridor.

By the time this was done I felt drained and tried to rest for a while. Sleep was impossible in this form so I went into my body (something that proved to be rather easy to do) and I folded up my coat and tried to sleep in one of the bedrooms I'd made for the Warlocks.

I still had no way of measuring time but when I awoke up but things had changed. Once I reconnected to the Dungeon Heart I noticed the differences. I had now had three Warlocks in my service and a new creature had entered my Dungeon. If I had to give it a name I'd call it a Goblin.

Compared to the Warlocks this creature was dull , all it did was eat, sleep and pick its nose. I guessed that I needed to give it something to do. I doubted it would research but perhaps I could have it train.

A training room wasn't hard to build and I was hardly lacking for space, my rest had ensured me plenty of magical energy and the recharge rate seemed to be increasing now that I had more creatures in my service.

I spent some of this extra mana on a new and larger lair which attracted more of these Goblins, which in turn meant I had to supply more food. For a while this trapped me in a pattern were I had to spend all my energy increasing the size of the main lair, the one the Goblins all shared, and what I called the underground farm. This drained my magical energy but the effort was well worth it as I now had a fighting force, a minor one to be sure but I was far less helpless now which made me feel a lot better about the situation I found myself trapped in.

Since I had attracted two creatures from the game I now knew what sort of creatures I was trying to attract. I also remembered that certain creatures only arrived if you built certain rooms. workshops attracted Trolls. Torture chambers attracted Dark Mistresses. And you needed graveyards to get Vampires. Graveyards required bodies which are normally easy to find as people die all the time but I wasn't willing to kill off the few creatures I had for the small chance I might get a Vampire.

On this line of thought I figured that if I could find a way to the surface I could easily collect bodies. I could also grab people for the Dark Mistresses to play with and hopefully convert, or at least I could turn them into Skeletons.

Of course missing people and bodies tended to draw attention so I'd have to be very careful in how many people and bodies I took. Assuming it was my world above me any people I took would be reported as missing to the police who would investigate and possibly even stumble across my Dungeon.

Funny, not to long ago I never would of thought I would be planning to capture, torture and even kill people. But death has a way of making people view things differently I saw the living more as tools to be used rather than real people. Perhaps becoming a Keeper had changed me in ways I hadn't until now realised, or maybe this was the true me and I was just free of a morality that had been forced upon me by society.

I dropped that line of thought for now as there was no point trying to reach the surface until I had what I need to make use of the resources above that I could take. I'd also really need Human looking creatures in order to blend in as even the Warlocks down here would draw far to much attention to themselves if they went to the surface world. And all this was assuming that it even was my Earth above me.

Instead I focused on drawing in more creatures. The plans for workshops and torture chambers came to me and I started expanding in a different direction in order to keep those separate from where my creatures ate and slept. This also kept everything far away from the Dungeon Heart which I was feeling very protective of for understandable reasons.

The lairs and food supply was now plentiful so there was no need to improve them further and now that I had created the new rooms all I could do now was to see if any new creatures arrived. I seemed to be doing a lot of waiting ever since I'd died I'd spent what could be any length of time just waiting. But there wasn't anything I could do about that.

As ever my patience was in the end rewarded. New creatures started to arrive. Just a lone Troll at first which straight to the workshop after touching the Dungeon Heart, it was soon joined by two more. No Dark Mistresses yet but I would likely need something for them to play with in order to bring draw them here.

As for the Trolls well they were useful. I had very little in the way of defences as of yet, and while they weren't the greatest of fighters I knew that they could build things like doors and traps. Such things would hinder any invaders and might save my existence as I was sure that I was dependant on the Dungeon Heart to survive. So if that was destroyed I'd die regardless of that fact that I was already dead.

But to get them to build such things would require great amounts of metal as while I could create entire rooms I couldn't manufacture things like doors and traps by myself. I had no idea why it worked that way just that it did and I'd likely need the Trolls to forge weapons as well as the creatures that had entered my Dungeon so far were very poorly equipped.

So my next order of business was finding more metal and then storing it in the storerooms I could have made. I'd need more of those as well.

By now my domain was spread quite far so it much easier for me to spread my awareness around and to find veins of different metals. I found iron, nickel, tin, bronze, silver, gold and copper, those were just the ones I recognised. I also found a vein of some sort of blue metal which was like nothing I'd seen before but there were many metals I knew nothing about so this didn't worry me. I was sure that the Trolls knew what they were doing with these resources and I let them get on with their work.

Soon the sound of hammers striking anvils could be heard echoing off the stone walls of my little underground kingdom. I knew that it would a while before the Trolls made anything I could make use of, they'd been spending quite some time just making the tools needed to build more complex items. Then they could go on to forging weapons of war and as their skills grew they would then they would be able to produce traps and doors, but I'd have to wait quite sometime before I could order them to produce such things.

For now I decided to focus my efforts on bringing in more creatures. If the torture chambers weren't enough to bring in Dark Mistresses then I'd try something else.

A new design filled my mind. A training room was needed this would attract warrior creatures to my Dungeon. I had the Imps dig out space for one and realised that I'd need to start connecting all this rooms otherwise my creatures were going to spend way to much time and effort just trying to get from A to B.

I had passageways made to connect everything which worked well and this action allowed to view more of the underground area I was building in. So far I was just finding stone, some with a few veins of metal in them but I knew sooner or later I'd find another portal or possibly even another Dungeon if there were in fact other Keepers out there.

Then I made some more Imps as the few I had weren't enough to keep expanding and while this cost great amounts of magical energy I was now finding it easier to recover from such uses. The amount of magical energy I had seemed to be related to the amount of creatures and space I claimed.

Yet claiming space took a long time and it seemed reckless to just start digging around at random for the sake of claiming space as I had no idea how deep down I was. I could be digging right below a major city so I had to be careful. The last thing I wanted to do was to dig into someone's basement or worse I could damage water or gas pipes which would certainly draw a lot of attention to my doings down here.

It would be an utter nightmare if anyone from the surface stumbled across this place. I could end up with the police coming here to have a look around. One sighting major sighting of creature and the army would be called in assuming it was thought as a hoax. The idea of a hoax might protect for a while but sooner or later people would wise up. And even if I acquired thousands of creatures they'd be no match for a modern day fighting force. My Trolls, Goblins and Warlocks would be cut down with ease by soldiers using guns.

I would be far wiser to slowly expand and keep myself hidden for as long as possible because as far as I knew there was no where safe for me to go. Sure I could run away through a portal, assuming the Dungeon Heart could be transported, but I could end up somewhere worse.

Still there was no point staying down here forever , sooner or later I'd have to see what was going on in the lands above me. If only to gather more resources because there were a lot of limits to what I could build down here and there were lots of things up there I could use.

It was such a shame I couldn't create portals to magical worlds that I knew about. I'd found a portal easily enough but I had no idea where they went or even if other fictional video game settings were real. But maybe they were, after all Dungeon Keeper is just a video game and this was real perhaps other video game world are real as well. There were quite a few fictional worlds that a Dungeon Keeper like myself could profit by visiting. Fable's Albion. The Overlord's World. Tamriel of the Elder Scrolls setting. World Of Warcraft's Azeroth, and that was just to name a few.

If I could set up Dungeons on those worlds I could get a massive army made up of many different kinds of creatures all working for me. And if I could do that, then I could conquer entire worlds!. Granted that wouldn't be without risk but the combined magical knowledge of so many different worlds was bound to provide me with power that make me as a god and would be well worth risking my existence for.

Excitement filled me as I dreamed of possible futures were I ruled over many lands. It was a pleasant thing to think about but it wouldn't come to pass unless I made it happen. To do this I'd need to grow and to expand also I'd have discover how portals were made. I was confident that the Warlocks would discover this in time but they'd need help.

In order to give them this help I expanded the library and lairs the Warlocks were making use of, as planned it drew in more of their kind. Sooner than I could of hoped for they came up with a new Spell for me to use but it wasn't the Spell I wanted it, they'd discovered (or perhaps rediscovered given that I knew it existed) the Evil Eye Spell. This Spell allowed me to see large amounts of space at once even in places I couldn't normally look into at all.

I tried out the spell a few times looking into the darkness but found nothing until I discovered another Dungeon. At first I panicked fearing another Keeper would come and destroy me but after letting my mana recharge I used the spell again and saw that the other Dungeon was much smaller than mine. It also seemed to be overcrowded with Imps, no other creatures at all, and while this rival Keeper had dug out a lot of rock he (or even she) hadn't made any rooms.

I watched for a while longer and saw that this other Keeper kept producing Imps. Clearly this guy (or girl) had next to no idea what they were doing. My rival was spending all his mana on Imps and hadn't even built a single complete room. This person must not of played the game like I did, which meant I had a good chance of destroying them before they could destroy me.

Still I was very worried about this discovery. If I wasn't the only Keeper around that meant a powerful rival Keeper could find and destroy me.

My plans changed at the speed of thought. Getting the surface without being exposed was no longer a concern as if there were many others Keepers out there then there was no chance of me going unnoticed in the long run. It might already be to late other as other Keepers could of be active for a while now.

I doubted that this had been going on for to long. Something like this couldn't remain hidden forever so something must of activated all of this. Perhaps someone had dug down here and awoken a Dungeon Heart all maybe something far more powerful than Man had decided to bring back the Keepers, there was simply no way of knowing why this was happing I just had to deal with the fact that it was.

Prioritise changed for me. I now really had to get off this world, go through a portal and close it behind me. But first I had to crush the rival Keeper I'd found and quickly as I didn't want this Keeper around. He, it or she might figure out things and become a threat to me. Plus if I took this other Dungeon I have access to more resources which was just what I needed in order to get out of this world and go to where ever it was the creatures were coming from or maybe even somewhere else.

I expanded all the rooms I'd made and quickly located more veins of metal, which was good as the creatures wanted paying. I then mentally commanded all of them to go to the training room so they could improve their skills (or level up as its sometimes called) the enemy only had Imps but the Imps would fight if the Keeper's Heart was threatened.

I then made more Imps of my own. And had them start expanding in the direction of the enemy Keeper as I really wanted to crush my foe as quickly as possible. But I ran into a problem.

A stream of lava blocked the way the flow had created a large chasm that would require a bridge to cross. That was something I had no idea about creating. For a few moments I thought I was stuck.

Once I figured out a solution I cursed myself for a fool. I had three dimensions to work in I could tunnel down and up. Going down would be pointless, if I weakened the ground below the river of molten rock then any tunnels I made could collapse and end up filled with liquid hot magma.

So I focused my efforts upwards and made a passageway over the lava stream and chasm. I now had a corridor of sorts going over the rival Keeper's Dungeon. Assuming this enemy kept working as if he had only two dimensions to work with (which anyone who'd lived on the surface might think they were limited to) I could tunnel a diagonally down and give my creatures the element of surprise.

It was tempting to attack now but there were a hell of lot of Imps in that Dungeon and they were mostly keeping to the Heart I wished to destroy.

My creatures also needed more time to train. They wouldn't matter much in the fight if they stayed at a low level and simply got buried in enemy Imps. And as I needed my Imps alive to keep expanding I wasn't willing to waste them in an Imp on Imp fight.

I also had to consider the fact that it would suit me if this opponent got some creatures for his Dungeon. Knocked out enemy creatures might tempt some Dark Mistresses into my service as enemy creatures could be converted over to my side.

Thinking on that I realised that I had no cells to hold such creatures in. Thankfully making a jail cell isn't complex as its easy to imagine such things. I'd just finished making them when I heard a voice.

_Err, hello can you hear me?. _

What the hell was that voice. It sounded Human but there were no Humans around here, well there was me sort of, but I hadn't figured out how to talk while out of my body.

_I sensed someone was watching me and took a look over here. _

I tried to speak imagining what I was saying being sent to the other Keeper because it had to be the other Keeper talking.

"Yeah I can here you" I replied.

_Oh thank god! _said the voice _I thought I was all alone down here. My name's Carl, what's yours._

I was about to reply and tell the voice my name was James. But Dungeon Keeper James doesn't really work for me. I needed a new name.

I'd role-played a lot in years gone by and there was a name I liked to use, Gothic. It was a simple name that had summed me up well during that phase of my life and now that I was ruling a dark, dank underground kingdom it seemed suitable again.

Plus if this was the other Keeper than I had to be careful about what I said. My real name should be hidden. I was after all planning to destroy him so it wouldn't do to get personal. But there was no harm in exchanging a little information I just wouldn't give him any personal information.

"My name is Gothic"

_Do you know what is happening? _

Carl's voice was frantic now he was desperate for information and any sort of help. This was something I could use to my advantage.

"Were underground" I told my rival "your a Keeper like me".

_A what?. _

Wow this guy really had no idea what was going on. I'd known I was a Keeper from nearly the start. If he'd gotten the download like I had then he must not understand what it all meant.

"Your a Dungeon Keeper" I explained "a ruler of an underground kingdom called a Dungeon".

_I thought I was dead _replied the voice _I remember dying and then I was here. _

"It was the same for me" I said "I've started to figure out how things work".

_All I seem to be able to do is make these little brown monsters, but I have plans in my head I know stuff now like blueprints for rooms but I can't seem to make the Imps finish a room._

"That's because you keep making all those Imps" I informed the other guy "stop making them and just wait your mana will recharge".

_Mana?. _

Oh boy this was really going to take some time to explain.

"Right listen to me and I'll tell you what I know".

I went on to instruct my opponent on the basics of Dungeon Keeping. It took god knows how long to get him on the right path but I managed to get him to the point were he was worth killing.

I mused with the idea of keeping this guy around as an ally but something inside of me warned that this wasn't a good idea. Keepers weren't nice people and it was possible , even likely, that my student would attack me in order to replace his teacher as the more powerful Keeper around here.

I went on to guide my new 'friend' who was called Carl Spencer to spruce up his Dungeon so that it was something worth conquering.

_Hey how come you have a tunnel over my Dungeon? _

"Its how I found you" I lied "I was looking for a way to the surface".

_Hey what Spells do you have now? _asked Dungeon Keeper Carl.

I'd shown Carl how to attract Warlocks so they research spells for him and he nearly as many as I did. My Warlocks were all still training as I wanted them as strong as possible when they went to war with Carl's much weaker creatures.

_I just got a Spell called 'Posses Creature' _Carl informed me.

I seethed with envy. I didn't know that spell. I could use Evil Eye and Lightening Bolts, and my Warlocks had found a Spell that allowed me to cause cave-ins but no Possession Spell.

"I haven't got that Spell " I admitted hoping he'd provide more information on the subject "what's it like?"

_Hold on a sec _replied Carl _I want to try something. _

Suddenly I knew the possession spell. How he'd been able to transfer the knowledge to me I had no idea but I did know that was getting to smart for his own good. He had to be destroyed now before he became a great threat.

I urged my creatures towards the enemy Dungeon all the while talking to Carl hoping to keep him distracted.

"Thank you Carl" I said "this spell will be useful, as will your Dungeon".

_Huh, what do you mean? _Carl inquired.

My creatures required more time to get into the right place so it was time to make my prey scared. He wouldn't be able to mount a proper defence if I upset him he be to distracted to prepare a proper defence.

"I mean that I'm going to take your Dungeon" I clarified "like a pig for slaughter I have fattened you up. I was just going to crush you like a bug but all your hard work has just made your Dungeon worth taking intact".

_No, I thought we were mates! _

I laughed over the mental connection that allowed us to talk to each other.

"You never played the game, Carl" I gloated "I have, Keepers are rivals there are no friends down here. Only allies waiting to become enemies".

It felt so good to this I felt a rush like nothing before. Nothing before this had made me feel so powerful, nothing compared to the pleasure I was feeling as I felt Carl's despair. If this was what it was like to be an evil Dungeon Keeper then I was going to be the most evil one of all.

_Hold on I wanted to attack you but I didn't, please don't do this _Keeper Carl begged.

I created an Imp and had it tunnel down into the Dungeon that would soon be mine.

"Sorry Carl but its the way the game is played. The weak die off to make way for the strong and you are weak. If I want to survive down here I need to add your resources to my own".

I was actually planning to get the hell out of this world but there was no need to say that out loud as more powerful Keepers might be listening in. Plus I would really would need his resources if I was going to survive. Escape was my plan but it might not be possible therefore I did need to get stronger.

_I'll fight you! _

Carl's scream of defiance might of meant something he had any chance of stopping me. I'd made sure that none of his creatures (of which he had few) had been trained, were as my creatures were all at least level four according to what I knew about them and I even had a few at higher levels.

My Goblins, Trolls and Warlocks poured in led by a Black Knight who'd been drawn into my Dungeon upon finishing the combat pit which was a more deadly version of the training room. Training the Black Knight to its maxim level had cost me the lives of two Goblins but that was a fair trade and Carl's Dungeon had a huge lair that would call in more than enough replacement Goblins.

Then the battle began. Carl's weak creatures died quickly as my Black Knight cut them down. My Imps were quickly claiming enemy territory and if any of the slain creatures were in fact just knocked out my Imps would drag them to the cells.

The Keeper I betrayed foolishly drained his mana by conjuring many more Imps. I'd told him that Imps would fight if his Heart came under attack but what I hadn't told him was that this would prevent him from using other Spells due to the mana drain. No bolts of lightening struck my creatures and the low level Imps died under the Troll made blades my small but well trained army wielded.

_Please don't kill me _pleaded Carl _I'll serve you I'll do anything you want. _

A tempting offer but I knew that if our situations were reversed that this would be a mistake. I'd be quite willing to play the loyal minion in order to avoid death but I'd stab my master in the back the second he showed any sort of weakness that I could exploit.

No Carl had to die. I had to have his Dungeon and only a fool would do anything else. I was no fool I would be strong I would only dominate those who could never be a threat to me. Everything else would have to die.

The enemy Heart was now under attack. My Army of Darkness (as good a name as any) charged into the Heart Chamber and even while Carl wasted the last of his energy making Imps they destroyed them.

Then an idea hit me. I could destroy this Heart easily enough but what would happen if the Imps claimed it?.

I had my warriors hold their ground attacking any new Imps that appeared until my Imps entered that room. They'd claimed enough ground to make a path here and now they were doing that funny little dance all around Carl's Dungeon Heart. I heard a terrible cry of agony and I knew Carl was dead, well as dead as an already dead person could be.

The now unused Heart was claimed as mine and I knew that I could use this Heart thanks to the knowledge granted to me. My idea had been genius I could have this empty Heart sent through a portal (assuming I ever figured out how to make one that led to somewhere I knew about). Then I'd be able to move myself to this other word without losing this Dungeon.

I'd likely have to abandoned this place at some point but it would be best to keep it running as long as I could so that when I did move to a new world I'd have as many creatures and resources as possible.

I heard cheering and focused on the noise. My creatures were celebrating their victory and their good cheer infected me. It wouldn't be operate for me to join in with them but I would return to my body and try out some of the fungus beer the Trolls had made.

Some time later I woke up with a very dry mouth and a very full bladder. Drinking that fungus beer hadn't be a smart thing to do given my empty stomach and it had gone right to my head. Upon waking up I hurried to the en-suite bathroom that was connected the bedroom/lair I was using.

With that need taken care off I focused on the other things my body wanted. Which were to eat and to drink something that wasn't fermented. Water wasn't that hard to get and the lair I was in had a sink in that provided drinking water and as for food well chicken was nice enough.

I headed down the Hatchery and watched the chickens clucking while I tried to figure out how I was going to cook one of them. Raw meat wouldn't sit well in my stomach but I didn't have kitchens around here.

That was another matter that I would have to take care of along with a dozen others as it wasn't just food that I needed. My clothes would need cleaning but given that I had no spare clothes I need new ones to change into while the clothes I was currently wearing were being cleaned. That was a bit of a problem because I didn't have anything to clean my clothes with nor did I have anything to change into, well maybe one of the Warlocks had a spare robe but asking one of them for a change of clothing would be embarrassing. I was the Keeper after all but unless I unlocked the 'Create Clothing' Spell sometime soon I might be forced into it.

Going through my mental index of Spells I checked for just a Spell but there wasn't one. I had however been granted a new Spell I could now create fireballs. I tried out this Spell and stared at my right hand in wonder as a ball of flame appeared. The fire didn't burn me and seemed to be held within some sort of transparent energy field. I guessed that it was this field that stopped the fire from burning me. The field also looked rather fragile and would no doubt break if the fireball was thrown.

To test out my theory I gently threw the fireball at one of the many chickens that were roaming this area and minding there own business. The ball of flame hit the chicken and were a living creature had been there was now a roasted chicken. This surprised me as I hadn't thought that the fireball would cook a meal for me and if that was all it did then it wouldn't be much use to me.

Perhaps I could make the fireballs stronger I focused and imagined the fireball to be hotter, this worked well as this new fireball was bigger and I could feel the heat coming of it. I then conjured a new Imp and threw the hopefully stronger fireball at it. The Imp was hit by the flame attack and went flying into the wall its little body burnt to a crisp.

I spent a few moments using up my mana and wasting a few chickens to get the hang of this spell. I soon figured out how the fire based Spell worked. The fireballs did as much damage as I wished them to within certain limits. Since I was hungry the fireball had roasted the chicken for me. I also discovered that at full power they could immolate an entire Imp but this cost a lot of mana.

Picking up the magical cooked chicken I marvelled at how precise the fireball had been. The chicken was cooked and its head, feathers and entrails had been burned away without rendering the meat inedible.

After eating lunch I went back to the Dungeon Heart in order to find out if anything had changed while I was asleep.

Once out of my body I went to examine my new holdings and was pleased to see that I had attracted many more creatures into my service. More Goblins and Trolls had arrived increasing both my fighting and working force.

Better still I'd captured a few enemy creatures and having a few captives in the cells had drawn a Dark Mistress to my underground domain. She went straight to the torture chamber and without any orders from me an enemy creature was brought from the cells by two Imps to the Dark Mistress who began the process of torturing my now dead rival's minion.

I had no idea how torture would alter that monster's allegiance but it was amusing to watch. I had no desire to inflict pain on a Troll myself but should I ever get really bored I might torture a Dark Mistress for the hell of it.

The one torturing the Troll certainly seemed to be enjoying herself, her cries of pleasure sounded quite sexual to me and I could see the torturer touching herself as she whipped the prisoner. Clearly she was someone who enjoyed her work, perhaps a little too much even.

At the rate the leather clad woman (assuming she was an actual women) was going she might kill the creature. In fact she soon did which annoyed me so I lashed out with a lightening bolt to teach her the error of her ways.

The 'Lightening' Spell much like the 'Fireball' Spell did different amounts of damage depending on how much mana a Keeper but into it and as I didn't want to kill or damage such a valuable creature my magical attack only stunned and shocked the Dark Mistress.

This turned out to be a mistake as rather than seem punished she was aroused by what I did and would likely create more corpses for me thinking I'd reward her further. Negative reinforcement is not a good technique to use on Dark Mistresses.

However there was an upside to this. I gained the knowledge of how to build Graveyards. So I immediately built a Graveyard and the dead creature was transported to it for burial. Not much a funeral for the poor thing but eh it was just rubbish to be deposed of now.

I disconnected from the Heart after that as I started to feel some mental fatigue. I had no idea how long I had been asleep after drinking all that beer but clearly it hadn't been enough so I went back to bed and tried to get some more sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author Note.**

**Thanks to my SB friends for letting me use their names the characters named are not like the SBers they are named after I'm just using their names as they are cool names for Keepers. **

**I do need some more names so if you would like a Keeper named after you let me know. I'll use the names that I think work best. **

**Dungeon Keeper Gothic. **

**Part Two.**

**Cardiff. Wales 21st Century Earth. **

Well the city of Cardiff had certainly seen better days. This place that greatly changed since the days I walked this city a child. It looked like a middle-eastern war-zone rather than a modern day population centre in the western world. The whole thing gave the impression of something out of the news when they showed footage of the fighting going on in Iraq, only it was raining here and much colder.

From scraps of information I'd picked up, mostly from old newspapers, other parts of the world weren't faring much better than the city of my birth.

One of the bigger surprises was that somehow I'd lost a year. I'd died on December 18th 2012 and discovered from one of the newer looking thrown away papers that it was currently some day past December 30th only it was January 30th 2013. I'd died over a year ago.

I could of easily accepted things if it was still only two thousand and twelve because then I would of only been down below for a couple of weeks but I couldn't accept that I'd spent over a year beneath the surface of the Earth. I would of made a lot more progress in a year so it seemed as if I'd spent a lot of time between my death and becoming a Keeper either somewhere else or not existing at all. Or perhaps this wasn't even my world. It could be an alternate dimension or something like that. A nice idea but I'd found no proof to support that theory it really did look as if I'd some how lost a year.

Compared to my missing time the problems for the rest of Humanity were much bigger. The world was in the process of ending. Judging by the information I'd found by wandering the dark streets, the last year hadn't been a good one.

The first major event that had signalled the end of the modern world was a series of massive earthquakes that had struck the west coast of the States and parts of Asia.

Then a tidal wave had then all but wiped New York City off the map and other parts of the world had been hit by intense weather as well. Japan was sinking into the sea according to one front page headline and a great dust storm had hit Egypt not that long ago.

As if that wasn't bad enough I'd learned that there were in fact many other Dungeon Keepers and they weren't as careful about reaching the surface as I had been.

Not that my first trip up had been a barrel of laughs. I'd gone up in the body of an Imp and then had the joyous experience of feeling the body I was using melt as soon it got exposed to sunlight. I'd fast figured out that sunlight was the problem as my Imps were fine moving about at night. I hadn't as of yet risked any of the creatures by exposing them to daytime. Moving about at night was easier anyway.

I found my way into a corner shop and had a look around. The food had been cleared out by rioters and had all the good booze but there were newish newspapers here and I picked one up to have a read.

Most of it confirmed what I already knew. Bad weather had cut down on oversees trade as ships were sunk. The oil had started running out which meant less petrol for cars and trucks further limiting trade. Rationing had started over the summer and for a while good old fashioned British upper lip had kept my nation of birth from falling into the chaos other countries were succumbing to.

By the end of the summer a massive Blitz era like movement had hit the country. This wasn't the first time Britannia had suffered like this. World War Two had caused rationing and such but rather than fall into despair people had become patriotic. The same thing had happened again and the country might have endured if not for one thing. My fellow Keepers had risen up and started attacking the surface world.

If they'd tried that a year ago I doubt they would of lasted long but with the weather going nuts and the oil wells drying up they'd enjoyed more success than they should have.

By all accounts in the news I figured there must be thousands of Keepers under the Earth's surface perhaps tens of thousands or even more. It was as if there wasn't a lot of underground to go around.

There were reports of thousands of creatures attacking many major population centre all at the same time. Only a massive alliance of Keepers could of pulled something like that off and even then they must of suffered major losses.

I could imagine that fighting the creatures under the control of the Keepers would be a major effort. Planes couldn't bomb underground kingdoms after all and the creatures had popped up in the most densely inhabited areas. Few pilots would willingly bomb cities they were meant to protect. And by the time the people had evacuated the damage was done and the creatures simply fled underground.

The Keepers would of lost tens of thousands of creatures when the army was called in and martial law was declared. But they could collapse tunnels and retreat beneath the Earth. Sure the army could tunnel down after them but then they'd be fighting the Keepers on their turf having little or no idea what to expect.

In the end however weight of numbers would have carried the day and the papers did report a few victories, stuff about underground enemy settlements being collapsed with explosives. There was even mention of camps being set for the study of captured creatures.

Concentration camps for monsters, what a world.

As I pieced together a picture I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the odd environmental conditions or the monster attacks that had brought around the end of modern Human civilization nor was it magic being used to attack Mankind (the oddest of which was a zombie making plague no points for originality there), what had really doomed civilization was how people had reacted.

There been huge riots. Mass exoduses of the major cities. Entire nations had become isolationists closing of their boarders and hoarding their resources. Religious groups had helped things along preaching the end of day had come and that the invading creatures were demons from hell (although in the case of Bile Demons that last one did have a grain of truth in it).

People had succumbed to despair. Suicide rates went through the roof. The extremist Muslims blamed the decadent west and the decadent west was blaming every from the Jews to the Homosexuals.

All in all the world had gone to to crap. The sooner I got out of here the better because I knew that before long the world would belong to the Keepers (assuming it wasn't utterly destroyed by nukes). But it wasn't totally theirs yet as while civilization had taken a major hit the Human race would survive and perhaps in time even recover enough to continue the war.

I'd bet that right now other Keepers were gathering all the dead and wounded people they could, in order to drag them down into their Dungeons. There those pour souls would become Skeleton Warriors or be buried in mass graves so that some of them would rise as Vampires.

I knew this because I was doing the same thing. Well to precise my Imps were running around the ruined city grabbing anything that looked useful and then dragging it down into my Dungeon for storage. That sometimes included people either dead or still alive.

In fact as I looked through a more recent copy of the Daily Mail (one I'd found in the back that had never made it to the shelves) I discovered that it already had happened.

There were reports of armies of skeletons marching towns and cities. Most had been utterly destroyed by tanks, planes and cruise missiles but the Vampires had proved harder to wipe out. Hardly a shock give that unless they were level one vamps or they got destroyed by a holy man the undead would just rise up again in the lairs they called home.

The Keepers also could command ghosts who could posses people. Clever use of such spirits could led to a lot of chaos for anyone challenging a Keeper. Soldiers could be taken over and used to attack their fellows. Leaders could be possessed to cause confusion and the ghosts could easily use any borrowed meat-suit to cause acts of sabotage.

Magic had also proven to be a major problem for the people leaving on the surface world. High Level Warlocks were able to teleport, they could pop somewhere attack using fireballs and such, then disappear before the army could deal with them.

On top of all that there were reports about soldiers disappearing who later be seen fighting on the enemies side. Urban warfare was good cover for the kidnapping of troops who after spending some time with the Dark Mistresses would be sent back to the surface world to fight those they'd once called friends.

As I read more articles I found out that the Keepers weren't always doing so well. The Navy seemed to be enjoying a lot of success because the Keepers had no means to attack ships at sea. There were also reports of dragons being shot down in the hundreds by the RAF.

But since the economy had collapsed and the industries that military relied upon to supply them with weapons had been targeted it was just a matter of time before the Keepers could march their armies upon the surface of the Earth unopposed by Man.

I didn't think they wipe the Human Race out, that might not even be possible given its sheer numbers, but civilization as I knew it would soon be over assuming it wasn't already gone.

I wasn't sad about this but I was worried. I knew that only an alliance of made of many Keepers could of destroyed the world of Men. This alliance wouldn't tolerate me doing my own thing I'd either be forced to join with them or be destroyed.

And if even if I did join them this would only delay my doom because as soon as all those Keepers removed everything that threatened them on the surface there was a very good chance that they'd turn on each other.

Factions would form made up of Keepers who wanted to different things and those factions would fight over territory on the surface and the spoils of war.

The best scenario for me would be join the winning faction. If a strong enough Keeper could keep a group of Keepers together I could end up serving under others as a minor ruler allowed whatever resources and land the leader allowed me.

And that was if I everything worked out for the best. Most likely I'd be destroyed and there was no chance of me rising to power to rule over others because by the looks of things I was way behind the my fellow Keepers.

"Hey you, get out of my shop".

A man, Indian by the look and sound of him, came down to the stairs and threatened me with a bread knife.

Given that I looked Human and I wasn't that imposing in person the shopkeeper must of thought that I was just another looter come to ransack what was left of his business.

With a mental command I summoned some Imps who came barging into the shop. I heard a female crying, the door slam and then a heavy weight be pushed in front of it. A pointless effort as the Imps broke the barricade easily and were soon dragging two people out of the shop. I needed Human slaves because there were things even Imps couldn't do and Humans those that weren't useful could be locked in the cells. Once trapped in those cells they would over time be transformed into Skeletons. Those undead creatures made excellent troops and I always needed more troops.

Looking over the shop once more before I left I pocketed the few remaining packets of smokes and a small bottle of vodka that somehow escaped the notice of the looters. I sparked up a cigarette and swigged at the cheap tasting vodka as I made my way back to my Dungeon.

While I was rather nervous about the current state of affairs, what with the world ending and all, I wasn't worried about my personal safety so I openly wandered the streets. Even if my body died I'd just have to spend some time floating around Dungeon Heart that was the source of my power until my body reformed.

In any case the only thing that was moving around out here, other than myself, were a few Imps. They were carefully sorting through piles of junk in order to find materials that would be useful to the Trolls who were under my orders building all the weapons and defences they could.

I was understandable anticipating an attack either by the Humans on the surface or by another Keeper seeking to expand his domain.

The more I learned about what was going on around here the more encouraged I was to get the hell out of this messed up world. I needed to go somewhere safer like maybe a hell dimension as compared to my fellow Keepers a load of demons would be easier to handle.

I made my way back to where the tunnel I'd had made breached the surface. The route down to my Dungeon took the form of a massive spiral staircase that took hours to traverse. But rather walk I simple teleported myself to the Dungeon Heart. I was able to do this thanks to the efforts of the Warlocks who had researched this spell for me.

My Dungeon was getting rather large and crowed as I'd expanded and made new rooms I'd created a lot of lairs which had brought many creatures into my service. Some of which weren't even in the game. For example I'd acquired a two Minotaur like monsters who seemed to enjoy fighting more than the dozens of Goblins I had in my army.

The dead bodies the Imps had dragged down here had been buried in mass graves which had produced a good of number Vampires. The living people I'd had dragged below had been handed over to the Dark Mistresses. Most had died in their cells and become Skeleton Warriors but I'd also gotten some converts. They weren't skilled at hand to hand combat like my creatures but Humans are very versatile animals so many of the converted had quickly learned to fight thanks to hours spent in the training rooms.

My army was rather surprisingly well equipped given the lack of resources underground. Bringing in materials from the world above had given me a surplus of metals. After improving and expanding the workshops I'd attracted a lot more Trolls and they were cheerfully supplying me with the all the weapons I could ever ask for.

Granted I was limited to medieval style arms but guns weren't a common sight in Britain and the army seemed to off elsewhere so my troops only had to deal with people armed with close combat weapons. And since I had quite a few Dark Elves equipped with crossbows I had the advantage of having troops with ranged weapons.

I had tried to get guns for my troops but the secret of gunpowder eluded me for now. I couldn't find it on the surface as the Internet was down and the public libraries I'd raided for books didn't contain what I needed.

If only I had a copy of the Anarchist's Cookbook. The things I could make then.

Still even without the almanac of anarchy I was doing quite well when it came to destructive devices. The creatures in the Workshop had provided with whole range of traps both lethal and not. Snares to catch people and animals. Gas bombs, fear traps, swinging blades and trap doors my Dungeon had it all.

But even with an ever growing army and a growing supply of deadly defences I was still very vulnerable. My worst nightmare was to be discovered by another Keeper, one more powerful than me. As while I'd easily crushed Keeper Carl thanks to my knowledge of the game I knew there'd be Keepers more knowledgeable and skilled than I somewhere in the darkness around me. When I stretched my awareness and looked into the dark I could sometimes here Imps digging and the sounds of industry that were far to close for my lacking.

So far no other Keepers had contacted me and the boarders of my Dungeon seemed secure but I knew that it was only a matter of time before my sanctuary was broken into and then I'd be in for the fight of my life.

**Gothic's Dungeon. Beneath England. 21st Century Earth. **

After a spending most of the night and morning working to improve my Dungeons' defences. I'd rested again for about half a day. The passage of time was hard to measure down here but I'd had some clocks brought down into a room I'd created which I called my office.

I didn't need an office I could manage my Dungeon far easier but connecting to its Heart but it felt more normal to work from this room. Every man Keeper or not needed his own space, a place where he could be alone and this was mine.

Above my Dungeon the sun was setting again as it was winter and there were few hours of daylight this time of the year. I could check the conditions above by possessing one of the Skeleton Warriors near the surface. The Skeletons could move about in the daylight so they were good for checking out the light levels on the surface.

I'd been granted the knowledge of guard posts along the way and I was making great use of them by stationing Skeletons around my Dungeon. Unlike the other creatures I commanded the Skeletons never left their posts unless commanded. They didn't need to eat or sleep and they never got bored.

There were two near the exit to the surface so I popped inside one of them using the 'Posses Creature' in order to check on the conditions above. I commanded the large heavy doors to open and now that the sun was gone the Imps could return to the surface to sort through the junk to bring more resources in.

This was an important task because my army was growing in size all the time. There weren't any more creatures entering my Dungeon (there was a limit to how many creatures a Keeper could attract the amount depended on the Keeper's level) but the only limit on the numbers of converted Humans and Skeletons a Keeper could command was quickly he could create or convert them.

An army that is always growing in size has a high demand for weapons and armour, this kept the Imps busy on the surface as they were forced to take apart things like cars in order to supply the Trolls with the needed materials.

There wasn't much I could do to help with that so I'd had the free time to do things like measure my sleep patterns and had discovered that it was possible for me spend days active without rest. It seemed that I didn't actually require much down time at all. I only rested at all to avoid boredom and some times to recover from extreme mental fatigue.

I did sometimes suffer from boredom as there was only so much to do down here and though I could amuse myself in the torture chambers by tying up some poor girl up or by playing games in the recreation themed rooms I just didn't enjoy these actives as much as my creatures did.

Leaving my study I went to the nearby Heart Chamber and connected to the Dungeon Heart. I checked on my Dungeon and all seemed well for the most part. The lairs needed expanding again as more of the Humans my forces had captured had been converted. Also some of my minions didn't get on with other types. The Vampires for example wanted to bite the Humans so they had to kept apart. Which make building lairs for the Vampires as far from the Humans as possible.

Human lairs were very different to the ones used by most of the other creatures. Rather than sleep in large communal lairs, like the Goblins did, Humans tended to seek out smaller bedroom sized lairs and claim them as there own. This forced me to build many small lairs but that wasn't to hard as I wasn't lacking for space down here and I could always make new tunnels that branched off old ones if I needed to.

This had led to me spreading out quite far by now (although my sense of scale was limited given that I nothing to compare my Dungeon to) and I'd found some interesting things. Such as tombs of long dead people and the bones of animals I didn't have a chance of identifying.

I'd even found a few inactive portals. One of those portals had later opened and brought forth the first Minotaur. Which to me was proof that these portals did indeed led to different worlds because I was certain that there weren't any Minotaurs on the world the other creatures came from.

It was my plan to find dormant portals and then hope that something I knew the origins of came through. If a creature entered my Dungeon came a world I knew about then I would venture to that world and build a new Dungeon there. I could travel to the world of the Keepers but I didn't what the situation was on that world. I might escape the known dangers here only to find myself on a world even more dangerous because I didn't know what I would be dealing with.

I moved my awareness around my Dungeon inspecting my boarder until I heard a sound, the sound of Imps digging but none of mine were digging they were all currently finishing up the new lairs and fortifying the expanded claimed space.

My awareness went to the noise and I used the Evil Eye spell. I saw Imps in what seemed to be uniforms. Dressing my creatures in matching outfits had never crossed my mind but it was a good idea as it would make it easier to keep track of your own forces in a battle with another Keeper. If I survived this encounter I'd so be doing that.

I mentally urged my creatures to go to the part of my Dungeon that was about to be dug into by the invading Imps. So far there seemed to be no enemy creatures heading my way but as I caste the Evil Eye Spell again I noticed that the tunnel they'd been digging led was a very long one, much longer than the one I'd dug to reach Keeper Carl's Dungeon.

This confused me because if this other Keeper was planning to invade it was going to take a very long time to get his army to my Dungeon even with the giant hand thing Keepers could use to move troops.

This could work to my advantage as once the unknown Keeper's Imps were killed by my creatures I'd have Imps claim as much of that tunnel as possible and then I'd cause cave ins as soon as hostile creatures starting making contact with my claiming Imps. This would buy my creatures time to organise and move into position. Then I'd have my defender in place and I might even be able to counter attack.

_Greetings _'said' this new Keeper _I am Keeper Black ruler of Manchester and member of the North-Western Alliance. _

Wait Manchester that was a long way from here. This guy must have Dungeons all over England if he can reach me here.

Black's 'voice' sounded friendly enough but the Keeper I'd destroyed had thought me friendly so I wasn't going to drop my guard.

"I am Dungeon Keeper Gothic" I replied.

_I'm glad to make contact with you Keeper Gothic _stated Keeper Black _I am looking for allies and a Keeper of a modest Dungeon is just what I need. _

I bristled at the word modest but stopped myself from reacting.

_Do you wish to my ally or should we fight. _

I considered my options. Part of me wanted to fight but I had no idea what I would be facing if I did go to war with Keeper Black. He might have a huge army that outnumbered mine and if he was telling the truth about being in an alliance he might have allies to support him.

"No I don't want to fight" I told Black.

_Very well I will met you in person where my Imps have dug into your Dungeon. _

Not seeing another option I teleported the aforementioned place and found myself facing Keeper Black along with two heavily armed and armoured

"Sorry about that" apologised Keeper Black "I wasn't sure if you wanted a fight or not. But judging by the fact that your army isn't pouring into this tunnel to rip me a part I'm guessing you'd like to talk".

There was a trace of a Manchester accent in his voice but it was a fading one.

"Anyway we can save the chatter until we get you equipped for the meeting".

Before I could say anything Black stepped up to me and I felt new knowledge enter my mind giving me access to many new Spells including a Spell that allowed me to create clothes to wear and weapons for me to use.

Creating these items was so simple it was just another way to convert magical energy into matter. After trying the Spell and spending quite a bit of mana I found myself dressed in clothes I'd warn before but never really had the courage to wear in public. Steel toe cap boots, black jeans with equally dark t-shirt with a long black coat over the top. But real leather not PVC I didn't want to look too much like Neo from the Matrix films.

"Not bad for your first time" admitted Black "adding accessories gets easier if you practice".

I practised details and made a studded belt appear around my waist before giving myself my piercings back. Two silver studs in my ears and since I didn't need glasses now I added a piercing to my left eyebrow.

"That should do for a meet and greet but you might want to think of something more intimidating for battle. Your Trolls can make you some decent armour if you ask them but it might take them a while".

He took my hand and suddenly we were by a Dungeon Heart.

"Don't mind the teleporting but it would of taken too long to get here if we walked, the meet and greet going to take place soon".

I felt too dizzy to complain about the kidnapping and before I could recover Black dragged me over to this Dungeon's Heart. A quick flash of light later and I was in another Heart Chamber but this one wasn't empty.

"Please follow me to the meeting noble lords" said a voice behind me.

I span on the spot and saw something that shocked. The polite request had come from a Drow female. A rather attractive example of the species if I was any judge and rather more Human looking than the Dark Elves in my kingdom.

Also her presence meant that the portals did indeed led to worlds I was familiar with as the Drow came from a Dungeons and Dragons setting

Before I could let this all sink in or ask any questions Black prodded me to keep moving.

"More Keepers will be arriving we need to keep this room clear" he explained "if you like the Drow so much I'll ask if she's for sale".

As we were escorted down a wide corridor I asked about what was going on and Black explained.

"Its simple really, my boss who will soon be your boss is having a meeting were all his allies and subordinate Keepers met to discuss stuff. There's a lot of deal making, you know trading for resources, spells, rare items, slaves and such".

We entered a truly massive room filled with hundreds of people. Nearly all the females wore tattered rags but I noticed that the rags were tattered in such a way that they still covered the most private parts of a woman and despite being dirty they still looked rather sexy.

The women also avoided eye contact with the men who were all far better dressed and emitted an aura of 'don't fuck with me'. They all looked Human and wore a mixture of modern clothing and old styles of armour. Given that Keepers could create clothing this meant that the Keeper dressed like out of choice.

The crowd stopped me from seeing the rooms details but the roof was very high but and was lit by chandeliers electrical ones not candle lit. I had to use candles because I had no idea how to set up a power plant but clearly this boss guy did know.

"Whose this boss?" I inquired.

Black took two drinks of a tray a carried by a woman who looked part cat and handed me one. So as not to offend my host I drank and found that the silver goblet was full of vodka. A little strong for me so I just sipped it.

"He's called Keeper Drenghul although he's sometimes called The King In Yellow. My boss is a major Lovecraft fan".

I didn't bother to point out that The King In Yellow was actually a book written by Robert W. Chambers which pre-dated Lovecrafts work but it was part of the same Mythos so the mistake was excusable.

Black pointed the self styled Great Old One and I had a look. He certainly looked like The King In Yellow. Had the mask and everything, and there was something otherworldly about him as if he didn't belong in the same reality as I did.

I pushed away those feelings knowing that they would only make seem weak if shown and tried not to look at the thing that might become the new boss. With a just a hint of timidness I asked Black what I've have to do to become Drenghul's subordinate because I sure as hell didn't want to fight him.

"The boss has allies" informed Black "Keepers whose power nearly equal his own, fighting each other would of proved too costly so they formed the North-Western Alliance which covers parts of North America and even Britain. Drenghul rules a vast number of Dungeons under the Atlantic Ocean, so when we invaded the surface he had the most troops and got to be in charge".

Black paused to drink some of his vodka.

"There are other major players but they keep their distance from Drenghul and have their own alliances. Ours isn't the biggest in terms of numbers but its quite far spread out so the boss is eager to get more Keepers on his side as we have a lot of territory to defend".

I didn't really understand much of what was going on so I decided to listen to everything Black had to say and to reply as little as possible.

"There's a Keeper called Monyal, for a Keeper he's quite nice he might gift you a few things but mostly that's an attempt to gain your loyalty. The NW Alliance has factions in it like any large groups and all the powerful Keepers are preparing for a civil war now that the surface world is in ruins for the most part.".

Black pointed at another group of Keepers.

"The one looking like a Necron is Entliza. He has a huge army of Skeletons but doesn't control a lot of Dungeons. Conquering his kingdom would be a nightmare but he's the least likely Keeper to ever attack another. He's also really depressing to talk to".

Looking at this Entliza I wondered how he made himself look like a Necron of all things. Keepers had a Human appearance and it didn't look like he was wearing a costume. I'd of liked to of investigated further but the Necron Keeper was surrounded by armour wearing Skeletons who made everyone else kept their distance.

Keeper Black turned to look at Drenghul and seemed to be hearing something but no one was speaking to him.

"The boss wants a word. I'll catch up with you later".

With that he disappeared leaving me on my lonesome but not for long as the Drow female who'd earlier caught my air was soon at my side.

"The King In Yellow sent me to you my lord".

Okay then this was unexpected the guy soon to be my boss was sending me party favours. I had hoped he hadn't notice me at all but that hope had now vanished.

"I am to ensure that you are amused until Lord Black's audience is finished".

I looked the Elf up and down noticing that her outfit showed off quite a lot of skin but was of a far better quality than most of the attire other females wore. She even had an amulet with a yellow symbol on it. This was a rather expensive personal possession for a slave who weren't normally allowed to own anything at all.

"And I will amuse you any way you wish" she added.

So much for Drow matriarchal attitudes clearly this woman didn't think men were inferior.

"Do you desire food, drink, perhaps a tour or would you like to visit the guest quarters and fuck me".

It took every bit of control I had no to react to that statement but it was tempting I did feel exposed here by myself as I knew no one and I was a minor player in a very big Alliance or I would be soon in any case. Plus I hadn't had sex since I'd died so why miss the chance.

I passed the silver goblet I was holding to a serving girl with hardly a glance and then said.

"Fucking sounds like fun".

The Drow female led me out of the room and to a door half open past closed doors with the sign 'do not disturb' written on them. The Elf women opened a door and used a dimmer switch to make the room light up, but only partly, closed the door and then removed the few bits of fabric she wore.

I took notice of her uncovered body pleased by how Human it looked despite seeming to be somewhat alien in nature at the same time, it was an arousing sight and I couldn't wait to shag her.

Until she moved the king sized bed I didn't even notice the rest of the room. It was certainly a room made for sex and not the nice sex. The walls were covered in the tools of the BDSM trade and many of them were unknown to me.

The Drow knelt at the foot of the bed facing away from me and said.

"What is your pleasure my lord. I am yours to use as you see fit in anyway you see fit as long as I survive".

Which meant as long as I didn't kill her I could do to her whatever I wanted. And given that I could heal others with my Keeper Spells she'd survive anything that didn't outright kill her. Whoever or whatever this Drenghul he knew how to treat allies well, even a minor Keeper like me was a getting the five start treatment. Which of course meant that he wanted something back a little more than my allegiance I guessed. I should really try and find out more about what was going on around here before indulging in carnal activities. Or to put it another way 'business before pleasure'.

"I desire information" I told the kneeling nude Drow.

"Forgive me my lord but I will not speak of my master's private business" apologised the Dark Elf "not even to save my own life".

Torturing her information would be pointless as I no real skill for interrogating people but luckily I wasn't after information on Drenghul.

"I want to know how you got this world that is all" I assured the Underdark native.

"I was exiled by my Matron Mother after failing in a task she appointed" informed the female "I wandered for some time and discovered a portal that led to this world. I was drawn here to serve my master and have ever since".

So portals to worlds known to me were possible. And it seemed that this Drenghul had either found one or made it If he'd made it perhaps I could gain the knowledge to make my own from The King In Yellow.

But there was a problem there. I had nothing worthwhile to trade with such a powerful Keeper and while Keeper Black had freely given me some valuable information I doubted I'd get much more for free. I'd have to earn it somehow or maybe I could trade for it once I had something worth trading for.

"My Master has other Drow for sale if you wish to purchase one. They are as skilled as myself as pleasing our lords".

She must of thought I'd asked about her origins because I wanted a Drow of my own. I'd look into that later but I wanted to try before I buy.

"Get on the bed I'm going to fuck you" I told the dark skinned Elven beauty.

The nameless Drow female soon lay on the bed and mentioned that there were shackles if I wanted to chain her up. I didn't see the point as she was quite willing. It seemed to me that all of the Keepers must enjoy tormenting and humiliating women before fucking them. I had no idea why this was perhaps we did merely because we could, maybe it was just another way to dominate others. That or we were all really sick in the head which wouldn't surprise me in the least.

I took a few moments to admire the naked form before me. The Drow had brilliant white hair that went half way down her back. Her skin was flawless and dark. Her breasts large and firm. She completely lacked body hair of any kind and her reproductive organ was Human in appearance. Given that this female had nipples it was far to assume that Drow gave live birth like Humans and from what I remembered from that setting it was possible for Humans and Elves to have children together.

Thinking on that matter I had no idea if it was possible for me to knock this willing sexy toy up. I had given a version my old body upon death (actually is was better than my old one) and it seemed to function correctly as I was able to eat and drink. I was even hard right now but I was unsure if I could knock this slave up by having unprotected sex.

But I soon realised it didn't matter. I wasn't going to buy this slave and even I did get her pregnant it was no concern of mine. Plus Human-Elf hybrids were very rare anyway the chances of it happening were very remote.

I undid my jeans and got on top of the party treat I'd been given. She was already wet for me despite the lack of foreplay and quite eager to please so without further delay I entered the Elf's cunt and was quite surprised by how tight she was.

Despite not being Human the Drow's fuckhole was as warm and wet as any woman's and I realised how much I'd missed sex. I hadn't fucked any of the women under the tender cares of the Dark Mistresses because the idea of raping someone did nothing for me I much preferred a willing woman.

Picking up my pace I started to pound the hell out of this slut forcing my cock deeper inside her moist hole with every thrust. She responded with moans and pants and her hot breathe blew past my left ear like an intense wind.

I wasn't being tender with my bed partner but she didn't seem to mind. Judging by the amount of things that could inflict pain upon a person on the wall I was guessing that compared to what she been forced endure at the hands of others my pounding of her pussy would seem like gentle love making.

Still the desire to harm to others was a strong for me since becoming a Keeper. Even now part of me wanted to beat the Drow whore just a little but I was having to much fun to stop for that. Was there a reason I felt that way was there something about being a Dungeon Keeper that made us be cruel.

Ignoring those thoughts I went back to using the slave as a source of sexual release and for a while all thinking just stopped. There was just moaning, groaning, panting and shouts of pleasure as I made the four poster bed strain under the force of the fucking.

Despite not having been at it for very long I could feel myself getting close to climax now and my sex toy seemed to realise that to as she begged me to cum inside her. She was very skilled at pleasing men and seemed quite attuned to my desires.

These days I wasn't normally one to indulge the wants of others, unless that want was to serve me, but for once I decided to grant a request and cum inside the Elven pussy rather than cum on her tits as planned. She gladly accepted my seed and even used her fingers to gather some for tasting.

I got up and covered myself not waiting for my party favour to dress before demanding to be taken to where I could purchase my own Drow fucktoy as right now I really wanted one of my own. My current Drow fucktoy didn't bother dressing or even stop to clean up the cum that was leaking from her cunt. Instead she took to straight to the slave market so I could do some shopping.

**Drenghul's Dungeon. The Slave Market. Beneath The Atlantic Ocean. **

My tour of the slave market had been very informative. Not only I had learned how the slave trade worked between Keepers I'd also come to understand just how powerful and nasty my fellow Keepers were. This entire market was an exercise in cruelty towards anything that wasn't a Keeper.

Females of different species (lots of which I couldn't even name) were being kept in cages lining the walls. All the women were naked and many of them seemed to have been broken in spirit as they did nothing to resit when poked or prodded. Heck a few even seemed to like it.

There were also slaves chained up on racks or just tied to posts stuck in the ground. None of the Keepers paid them the slightest bit of attention to them some Keepers even knocked them down as they went about their business. I however noticed and took careful note of all the different torments these ladies were suffering. I was getting so many ideas to try myself once I had a good harem going.

Like in the meeting chamber it was hard to see any details in this room due to the sheer amount of people around but I could tell that his marketplace was bigger than room I'd every had built. Clearly I'd been thinking too small when creating my Dungeon.

I moved around the market and saw the many uses for the property that could be brought and sold here. Males slaves used for manual labour were sold at a different marketplace this one was for sex slaves or those who just wanted females for lighter work like say maid service.

The Drow who'd been entertaining me earlier had vanished after showing me to the market in order to clean up. This left me to free to wander freely and to discover how exchanges between Keepers took place. Physically moving goods from one Dungeon to another was impractical due to the distances involved the only reason Keepers could travel so far was because we teleport from Heart to Heart, but we could allow enter another Keeper's Dungeon via this method if we were invited.

The Drow who'd been entertaining me earlier had vanished at some point leaving me to wander freely and to discover how exchanges between Keepers took place. Physically moving goods from one Dungeon to another was impractical due to the distances involved the only reasons Keepers could travel so far was because not only could be teleport but if we were invited into another Dungeon we could move from our own Hearts to the one allowing us access.

This explained why no Keeper had ever just appeared inside the Heart Chamber and destroyed the source of my power, they would have required an invitation in order to enter my Dungeon

I'd come with Black so had been let in because he was allowed to bring guests. And since I could move from this Dungeon's Heart to my own I could easily bring things here and take things back to my home.

But there was a problem with me purchasing some slaves. I didn't have much in the way of gold nor did I have many slaves to sell so there was a big limit to what I could buy and all the merchandise here was pricey. Somewhere along the way a Keeper had figured out how to use the magical energy we called mana to alter the bodies of women ensuring that they were all attractive. This meant that there was no shortage of pretty females to buy but they were costly to make and thus expensive to buy. Mostly because no Keeper wanted to waste magical energy to benefit another Keeper.

By overhearing a few traders talking I found out that the most expensive ones were the immortal women. If you found a girl you liked the look of you could have her made immortal. Then she would never grow old or become sick they also didn't scar so nothing every would subtract from their looks. Well aside from killing them as while they didn't age they could still die via violent methods.

An example of this was a teenage girl being whipped by a Keeper who had dressed up a Goa'uld System Lord and was currently whipping his slave. The marks he made upon her skin vanished quickly after they were created leaving the teen in pain but she wasn't damaged physically.

It was stuff like this that made me realise how weak of a Keeper I was. There was no much for me to learn. So many Spells I didn't know and so much that I didn't understand about why we did the things that we did.

After wandering for a while I finally found the Drow females I'd been looking for towards the back of the marketplace. There were five Drow females in cages that hung down from the celling. The Keeper selling them for some reason had decided to look like a stereotypical Dwarf complete with beard and axe. I hadn't realised that Keepers could change their looks then again the guy actually be a Dwarf.

"You wanna buy a Drow, laddie".

The accent caught me a little off guard as most of the voices around here sounded like upper class Englishmen but I got past that quickly as I had business to get on with.

"Yes" I replied "what do you want for one of them?"

"Drow are rare creatures so it will cost ya three bags of jewels." was the answer.

I'd seen the size of the bags used to carry jewels and I knew I didn't have enough to fill two of those never mind three.

"Or an equally rare creature" added the Dwarf shaped Keeper.

"I have a Minotaur" I mentioned "are they rare enough?".

Actually I had two which was lucky and they seemed rare enough I'd not seen any around and many of the Keepers had powerful creatures with them.

The Dwarf mulled it over before saying.

"That and a bag of jewels will get ya a Drow but I wanna see the goods first".

Fair deal and what a weird accent it kept disappearing only to come back stronger almost as if two people with very different accents were trying to speak out of the same mouth. Perhaps this creature actually was a Dwarf and the Keeper possessing it kept forgetting to do the accent.

I went back to my Dungeon and quickly returned with the bag of jewels and the offered creature. Ordering the Minotaur to serve the Dwarf instead was easy enough as the monster didn't really care for who it worked for as long as it got a cave to call home and plenty to eat.

The trade of rare creatures seemed to an important activity between Keepers and I wasn't surprised by this at all. People collected those silly Pokemon things after all and the creatures living in the Dungeons were actually good for something, other than costing money.

Inspecting the Drow in the cages I soon decided which one I wanted to buy. Out of the five this one had no tattoos, no scars and seemed afraid of me which for some reason I found attractive.

"That one" I said while pointing at the scared Drow female.

"Good choice laddy" replied the Dwarf "this one not ana good for fighting but she broke easy and hasn't been touched by my creatures.

That changing accent was really off-putting so I decided to get this business over with as quickly as possible.

"Do ya wanna her wrapped up or as she is?" asked the possessed Dwarf.

"Wrapped up please" I replied wanting no one to see her naked body but now she was mine.

The Drow was dragged out of the cage by the Dwarf (who was amazingly strong for hiis size and weight) and then told to wear a outfit which looked like it had once been a sack holding coal. It covered my slave's body well enough and went well with the collar and chain fastened around her neck.

I grabbed the chain and pulled, the Drow slave followed like a dog not daring to say anything as I led her around the marketplace.

Following a sign that said magic in both English and other languages I headed for what I assumed would be the place were Spells were traded but I was intercepted by Keeper Black who informed me that the boss wanted to see me before the main meeting started.

"You got yourself a Drow then mate" commented Black "there a bit pricey but I hear they can be more fun that even a Dark Mistress in bed".

I'd have to take his word for that. I'd never take a woman who liked to whip men to bed with me.

"I prefer the Moon Elves myself" Black added "they give great back rubs".

I ignores my fellow Keeper's rant about the merits of different Elven races and had a look at the Dungeon I was in. The passageways in this Dungeon were larger that my own and well decorated. Alcoves were built into the walls so that art of different kinds could be displayed. By the looks of things a few museums had been pillaged in order to make this place, not a bad idea actually.

Ideas about improving my own Dungeon filled my mind and I knew that once I got back I'd be spending days improving things. I wanted pieces of art displayed in my Dungeon, a few surface raids would supply with the items I needed there were museums and art galleries in every major city after all.

A large double set of wooden doors was opened and I entered what I guessed was Drenghul's throne room. The place was huge and well designed with a waterfall on one side of the room and a flow of lava on the other which looked very impressive. Huge pillars of stone in-bedded with jewels of different sizes and colours supported this chamber.

Black and I walked down a path made of stone in-bedded with blood red rubies there was enough wealth beneath our feet to finance a small nation I reckoned, the fact that Drenghul could afford to use such a fortune for such a frivolously thing spoke volumes about him.

Drenghul's throne was raised on a stage made of gold at the far end of the room. Yellow curtains covered that wall. There were banners to, also yellow, with Drenghul's mask upon them. Clearly this powerful Keeper used it as a symbol although I hadn't yet seen it displayed elsewhere, aside from on a necklace worn by party favour, but in the other rooms in had been hard to see such things due to the sheer amount of people around.

Another kind of Elf took my Drow's chain and attached it to a hook by the door. Pets weren't allowed to approach Drenghul it seemed.

Black and I crossed the room and Keeper Black knelt before Drenghul who floated in front of his throne like some sort of ghostly apparition rather than a Dungeon Keeper. I had no idea if this thing before me had ever been Human but I doubted it.

Despite how scary he looked I didn't bow because I had to much pride for such things.

:::_KNELL_:::

The word came from no voice and entered my mind with the force of a sledgehammer shattering rocks. I was driven to my knees and I felt terror not like the fear I'd felt when concerned that my Dungeon was under attack but real terror as if my soul was somehow under threat.

A Warlock stepped from behind the throne and spoke to Black and I.

"You may stand".

We both did so and we both focused our attention on the Warlock as the thing floating before the throne was painful to look at when its attention was focused on you.

"My Master welcomes you Lord Gothic and wishes for you to join his alliance of your own free will".

The Warlock didn't say anything else but I got the feeling that refusing would be a very dangerous thing to do.

"Very well" I said "I'll join this alliance".

"Now swear allegiance to Keeper Drenghul" instructed the purple robed Warlock.

I made a formal sounding oath to Drenghul and suddenly felt more at ease. The mood in the room became slightly more relaxed.

More Warlocks entered the room and a table was placed by the throne, a table that was covered in scrolls. Also oddly enough a laptop was brought out a Warlock in a business suit (a very strange sight) started to take notes as others talked.

On some blank scrolls my Keeper name was recorded as were my personal details. The location of my Dungeon was added and I was informed that I was to be granted domain over my home city as long as I could hold against any rival Keepers.

They asked to know which Spells I knew (which wasn't many as it turned out) I was worried about exposing my weakness in that area but it turned out that I should have been worried about something else.

New knowledge entered my mind the knowledge of Spells the information threatened to collapse my sanity but I was able to hold myself together under the onslaught of data.

The Spells I 'learned' were many and interesting. The one they had in common was using magical energy to produce different effects. Everything from shooting lightening bolts to creating simple objects all required mana which was somehow channelled by the Keepers into whatever effect it was they wanted to create.

I also discovered why jewels were valued over metals like silver and gold. It was possible for Keeper to create gold coins so this devalued the metal up the point were anything worth buying would require chests full of gold coins to purchase.

There were limits to this power. Keepers could for example create animal life but we couldn't create sentient life. I theorised that was because people had souls. Even the Vampires that served the Keepers could have souls that hadn't passed on to the afterlife. I wondered if the Skeletons created by allowing prisoners to die under the tender mercies of the Dark Mistresses had souls, perhaps that was the force that animated them.

Next we talked about the rooms I could build. The full list took a while to get down as I hadn't been lacking in imagination when it came to building room. I had blueprints (which was the name I gave to the knowledge that allowed the creation of rooms) and some of them were unknown to Black who admitted that he'd overlooked such things in an effort to quickly build an army. This also had the positive effect when it came time to cram more knowledge into my brain. There were few rooms I hadn't come up with myself so 'learning' the ones I didn't know about didn't hurt to much.

A list of what creatures I had was made and when I mentioned the Minotaur the Warlocks gave me a funny look. One of the Warlocks explained that only Keepers with Dungeons that were maze like attracted a Minotaur and that Drenghul would like to buy this creature from me.

I couldn't hide my smile at that as it meant I had something worth bargaining with. I explained that I wanted the knowledge to make portals to other worlds in exchange. This proved to be a complex request.

"There are many other worlds portals can be opened to but Lord Drenghul does not wish for his subordinate Keepers to compete with each other on these other worlds. Not with enemy alliances threatening us, we can not afford to be divided. Therefore your choices are limited".

A long list of places was presented to me most of which had the names of other Keepers next to them. All the places I'd thought about setting up a Dungeon upon were taken by other Alliance members. Skyrim was taken as was Middle Earth even lands like Zelda's Hyrule had been claimed.

I noticed that Fables Albion had been crossed off the list and I asked about it. I was told that the Keeper that selected that world for his expansion had been destroyed during the war with the surface world. American troops had managed to fight their way to the Keepers Heart and had destroyed it with C4 despite taking heavy losses.

News like that made me glad I'd missed out on that war even if missing it had left me far behind the others in terms of territory, wealth and power.

"I'll take Albion then" I the Warlocks who noted it down.

Another blast of information hit me and I felt myself lose my grip on reality for a moment. But I managed to avoid a total mental breakdown and my sanity survived.

I now knew what I needed to know in order to travel to another world. It was just a matter of building a portal and having the Warlocks arrange the runes surrounding the portal in the right order.

I'd need to take my Dungeon Heart to this other world with me so it wouldn't be at risk of being destroyed while I was gone. Also I need someone to run my affairs on this world while I was gone, even though it was simple enough to move from Heart to Heart there needed to be someone to run my Dungeons' day to day affairs. That required a lesser Keeper.

Finding someone to fill that role would be difficult because it wasn't in the nature of a Keeper to submit to another. I'd have to force one into taking a formal oath like the one I'd made to Drenghul. Thankfully I already knew how to get that oath as back when I'd first become a Keeper I'd destroy a fellow named Carl, he'd offered to serve in exchange for me sparing his life if I'd accepted he'd of been a lesser Keeper and would of served me as I saw fit.

As complex as all that was at least that seemed to be the last of the information I needed so the big matters dealt with it was time for the finer details.

"You'll need a symbol" informed Black. "something to put on your flags and such".

There were hundreds of Keepers in the North-Western Alliance so it took awhile to find a symbol for me luckily I found one. Being the only Welsh Keeper I got to take the Red Dragon and put it on a black background. I liked red and black as colours so it worked out well for me.

With both a symbol and a colour scheme to go with it I could now create banners, flags and even uniforms. Also it was possible to buy Dark Mistresses who were skilled at applying body art, they could tattoo or even brand my symbol onto my slaves bodies ensuring that everyone in the North-Western Alliance knew who the marked slaves belonged to.

"Lord Drenghul requires tribute from his subordinates" explained one of the Warlocks "one of us will be sent to audit your Dungeons on a regular basis in order to work out the appropriate tribute".

"It's not a big deal" assured Keeper Black "I checked out the area your in there are a few minor Keepers around your Dungeons. You should be able to expand quite fast now that you have all the Spells you need. With the extra rooms you can build your also be able to get more creatures so you'll be able to pay the tribute easily enough".

Well it wasn't as if I was going to say no the big scary Cosmic Horror look alike. Anything more than a singe word from him and I'd be nuttier than a squirrel's winter horde.

I had what I needed now and I was eager to get back to my Dungeon. I had improvements to make to my underground domain and wars of conquest to begin. But sadly for me that wasn't an option yet.

"We've still got the meeting to go to" reminded Black "come on it should start soon . After that you and me can discuss taking those other Keepers".

Great more meetings.

"Fine" I replied with unexpected confidence "let's do the meeting then I want to get out of here. I have work to do".


	3. Chapter 3

**Dungeon Keeper Gothic. **

**Part Three.**

**Drenghul's Dungeon. Meeting Room. Beneath The Atlantic Ocean. **

The meeting room, like everything else in this Dungeon, was far grander in appearance than anything I'd been able to build so far. Like the other parts of this place I'd seen it made me realise really how unimpressive I was compared to the other Keepers. But rather than be humbled I was only being further driven to improve my own domain once I returned home.

This room was dominated by a massive wooden table that lacked chairs and was more than large enough for a few hundred people to stand around which made me realise just large this room was. You could hold a rock concert in here with a thousand person audience and you'd still have room for a mosh pit.

There were at least a few hundred Keepers standing around the table and for every Keeper at the table two more hung back. I guessed that they were lesser Keepers servants of greater Keepers. I smiled as I realised that this meant that I wasn't as weak as I'd thought I was. I might not be that powerful but as I'd sworn my oath of allegiance to Drenghul directly I was only subordinate to the King In Yellow. Also my place next Keeper Black declared me as his ally rather than his inferior and I asked myself why was this case. Did Black need an ally? Was that why he had brought me here?.

He could be doing what I did to Keeper Carl, which was to fatten me for slaughter but I didn't think that this was the case. I'd been gifted to much to simply to be killed off once my domain had expanded so there had to be another reason for him to take me under his wing. Thinking about it I guessed that Black must need an ally more than an subordinate. Perhaps he didn't have the resources to subdue me and defend his territory. That made sense as Manchester might be quite close to Cardiff when you can teleport but by foot it would take an army days to traverse that distance, but as an ally I'd be able to send him support in seconds using the Dungeon Hearts.

The North-Western Alliance needed more members by the looks of things and that was most likely why they were giving me much. Drenghul must have powerful enemies and when you have an enemy whose might equals or exceeds your own you gather allies in order to tip the balance of power in your favour. I'd do the same were in Drenghul's shoes.. well he didn't have shoes or even feet for that matter so position would be a better word.

I had no idea what the other Keepers were talking about so instead of listening to what was said I studied them instead. For the most part they looked like normal looking people but some of them had dressed like fictional villains from films and television going so far as to alter their physical appearances somehow perhaps with a spell.

One Keeper who'd chosen to look like Bane from the new Batman Movie was talking about being attacked by a party of heroes that weren't from this world. This wasn't a new thing judging by the lack of reaction by the others but it was news to me. But I shouldn't of been surprised really as if evil creatures from other worlds could enter our Dungeons why wouldn't their good counterparts from those worlds be able to find their way in.

I wasn't to worried about my Dungeon being attacked by a band of heroes. I had plenty of Skeletons guarding my Heart. I was far more worried about another Keepers finding my Dungeon but not too much as when I'd nipped back to collect the jewels used to pay for my new Drow everything had seemed fine.

The subject moved to that of the surface world. It seemed that war upon Human civilization wasn't as over as I'd thought it was. The western world was in a mess true enough but that didn't mean the fight was over. Two members of this Alliance had been killed in the last month by armed bands of Humans. This group was weakening as while new Keepers were still coming into existence to replace the ones lost they weren't part of the North-Western Alliance and many new Keepers were attacking Alliance members.

The Keeper Alliance I'd joined crossed the Atlantic ocean but the members were mostly Americans and it seemed that they were taking the brunt of Human counter-attacks on Dungeon Keepers. From what I'd read in the papers I'd salvaged from the ruins of Cardiff. British resistance had been far less fierce but not for lack of trying it seemed but my homeland was after all an island. With the fuel crisis hitting the Western world hard in 2013 my native island had become very isolated from its oversees allies and their resources.

I wondered if the fuel crisis had anything to do with the Keepers in other parts of the world as even with a shortage of oil the modern day world should of put up a better fight than they did. If the Keepers had attacked world wide that would explain why civilization had collapsed so quickly.

"Now you know why its important for us Brits to stick together" Black whispered to me as the American Keepers spoke about the trouble they were having with the surface dwellers.

Thinking about what Black said I realised why he hadn't just destroyed or enslaved me. If the yank Alliance members were weakening then the balance of power could shift to the British Keepers if we organised our numbers. The fact that so many new Keepers had appeared in my part of world suggested that until now there hadn't been that many British Keepers.

But why were so many new Keepers popping up in that area? That was another question that wouldn't likely get an answer. Unless there was some sort of guiding intelligence behind all this who decided to tell me I doubted I'd ever find out.

I suspected that there was some sort of intelligence behind this because no one had been a Keeper for more than a year and as far as I knew we'd all died last winter even if some of us hadn't become active until now. It was almost of if some sort of crop had been harvested, we'd all died and then been reborn as if to someone's plan.

If there was someone behind all this it was very powerful something and it had a plan. And given what the Keepers were getting up to I think it must be an evil something as well because it there was no way anything good could be behind all this. Lacking any sort of proof all I had was guesswork but I felt it was right and I would be willing to bet my fortune on my guesses being true.

I heard a French sounding voice which made me wonder how far Drenghul's influence was spread. Did this Alliance have members in France or was this Keeper based somewhere else and just happened to have been from France while alive.

After listening to him it turns out he was actually Canadian which didn't make his presence here any less interesting nor was I less confused about why he sounded French. Black seemed to pick up on my confusion and explained.

"He's speaking in French but Keepers understand all forms of speech, that's why your hearing an French accent even though he's not from France".

Ah so that Dwarf Keeper I'd run into earlier must of using non-English words while talking to me that would explain why his accent kept disappearing and reappearing. The Americans were speaking English so I must have been hearing their natural accents.

This was all a bit complex to understand but it did allow for clear communication which is an important thing when dealing with a large group like this. A misunderstood word could led to insults and bickering which happened often enough when everyone understood each other but if we'd been talking in different tongues it would have been worse, perhaps even impossible to hold such a meeting.

The discussion moved on to the sharing of resources which was something else I had nothing to say about as while Keepers could transport small amounts of goods, and even people, to any Dungeon they were allowed access to. Transporting metric tons of metals and armies of creatures over such distances was impossible. So there was nothing the Keepers on this side of the Atlantic could do to support the American Keepers.

Because of the distances between the two sides it was impossible for even Imps to tunnel all the way under the Atlantic Ocean. Drenghul's network of Dungeons might spread that far but that didn't mean that an army could be marched through them.

While Drenghul himself could move his creatures around his network that would leave him vulnerable to attack. He wasn't the only Keeper with his domain under the sea he had enemies to deal with as well. Keepers who were to powerful to deal with in an open attack but they might attack him if one of his many Dungeons looked inviting to attack due the lack of creatures who would otherwise be protecting it.

Knowing this I felt myself rather fortunate. My Dungeon had an excess of resources mostly because no one on my part of the surface was resisting the efforts of my creatures to harvest useful materials from the city I'd been given to rule over by the questionable authority of the alliance.

But there was simply no way for me to get any of the resources I'd harvested or the tools and weapons I'd had made to the Americans. Well not unless I managed to get my hands on some ships and then just sailed supplies across the Atlantic. However the shortage in fuel supplies would work against me and in any case judging by the information I'd gotten from the papers the Royal Navy and RAF were still active and they'd easily sink any ships sent out under Keeper control.

Also judging by Black's statement about us Brits sticking together I didn't think I'd be allowed to offer the Americans support even if I was able to, at least not if I wanted to stay on good terms with my only real ally and there was no sense risking my neck for them.

What was spoken about next drew my attention and I hung every word while a Keeper who looked like an stereotypical evil Wizard, only he looked to young for the outfit, talked about how well things were going for him in his conquests of Azeroth, which I remembered right was the setting for the World of Warcraft game. I didn't envy that Keeper as Azeroth was a dangerous place and I doubted I'd do so well if I was expanding there.

Still it was interesting to hear about and if lots of Keepers were venturing to other worlds it would help to explain why the war with the surface had gone as well as it did.

If Keepers were bringing in creatures and resources from other worlds then Mankind would of founds itself facing things it couldn't possible prepare for as well as the creatures Keepers normally commanded.

The war must have been an intense and scary time. Even though it wasn't yet over I'd missed the most dangerous parts and for that I was glad. Still the fighting wasn't over yet and I'd likely have to take part in the pacification of Earth's surface at some point. But that was something I could discuss with Black later.

Time dragged on and I had to listen to more reports that I either didn't understand or that I had nothing to contribute to. I couldn't wait for this to end as I was already bored and I was feeling hungry. Now that my Imps had made it to the surface I had more than roast chicken to fed upon so I was actually looking forward to my next meal.

After waiting for what seemed like hours the meeting finally came to an end and I was free to leave. Following Dungeon Keeper Black I headed back to my Dungeon in order to get to work on the badly needed improvements.

**Gothic's Dungeon. Heart Chamber. Beneath Cardiff. **

As soon as I got back to my underground domain I connected to my Heart and left my body. It was easier to oversee my Dungeon in this form and I was quickly able to deal with a few matters that required my attention.

After yet again expanding the lairs, the hatcheries and my subterranean mushroom farms in order to deal with increasing population I set about making the improvements I desired.

I created an Armoury next to the largest workshop as it was better to store weapons separately from tools as if my Dungeon was invaded it would save the defending creatures some time if they didn't have to sort through other items to find the weapon they wanted. Realising this I created another Armoury close to largest lair the one that housed most of the Goblins who made up the bulk of my fighting forces or at least would until I got more Skeletons.

Creating simple weapons , like spears and axes, was easy enough as they had no moving parts but more complex weapons like crossbows and basic firearms had to be created by the experienced Troll builders. Until now I hadn't really understood that I could create simple items on command but now that I could I filled armouries with primitive weapons and got the Trolls to work on more complex stuff.

This cost me a lot of mana so I had to stop for a while before I could move on to the next task.

Once recharged I expanded the cells and the torture chambers as my forces on the surface had dragged many people down here to be converted by the Dark Mistresses. I had no idea as of yet what I was going to do with all these people and I mused with the idea of just having all turned into Skeletons as an army of such creatures would be easier to handle than flesh and blood creatures.

On the other hand Humans did have their uses. The Skeletons were a great fighting force and made superb guards but they were good for nothing much else. Humans could not only create items like the Trolls they could use complex weapons as well. They could also be as farmers something I need once I started setting such things up on the surface. They'd make a good labour force when on the surface as unlike my Imps they could handle the sunlight.

Still I did need more Skeletons so I ordered that the elderly and sick be thrown into the cells along with any ugly women because I wanted to put together a harem and who wants ugly women in their harem. Not me that's for sure.

The Dark Mistresses were close enough to Human themselves to be able to tell the difference between attractive and unattractive women. They did a fine job of sorting the weeds from the flowers and later I'd inspect the lot before picking out a few dozen women to serve me in a more direct manner.

But before they could do that I needed to set up an area for such activities to take place in. I sent my awareness lower than before and checked for any signs of Keeper in this area. Neither the Evil Eye Spell nor my awareness could pick anything up so it was safe to work down here.

First off I created a tunnel sloping down to the area I wanted to build in. Higher level Imps could teleport like me but other creatures couldn't and if I wanted to build a harem down here my Human pets would need a way to reach this part of my Dungeon.

I started the construction by creating one huge room, hopefully as big as Drenghul's throne room, and pleased to note that my mana levels weren't to badly drained by this action. Once the Imps had claimed this space I mentally pictured the throne room I wanted and that image became a new blueprint.

The dirt and rock became obsidian coloured stone which was smooth like glass reflecting what little light there was down here. A line of flaming torches appeared along each wall as the Imps worked but the room was so dark in colouring that this had little effect.

The Imps worked to create my designs and soon an onyx coloured throne appeared. Elevated off the ground like Drenghul's. It was a crude thing made of stone but large in size. Artistic designs for such things were beyond my skills to create but I could picture such things.

Alcoves began to appear in the walls and roaring fires stood in them. This provided heat and light both of which were badly needed down here.

Since my symbol was a red dragon I'd mentally pictured two knee high dragon status that looked like the dragon on the Welsh flag and the Imps made them appear on each side of the throne which looked very cool in my opinion. Hopefully the throne room would look just as awesome through Human eyes as well.

The Imps added finer details, a dragon statue appeared that perched on the top of my throne to make it look more decorative. Also blood red banners appeared above and to the side of the throne which add some colour to the room.

Since jewels couldn't be created from magic (which is why we Keepers used them currency) a conjured lush blood red carpet came into existence one that matched the banners, it led from the door to the throne giving anyone walking up to my throne something soft to walk upon. This went well with the room.

Since Keepers couldn't create jewels from magic (which is why we used them currency) I conjured a lush blood red carpet that matched the banners it led from the door to the throne giving anyone walking up to my throne something soft to walk upon. This went well with the room once I had torches to the pillars in order to create enough light to see this all by.

The creation of so drained my mana again and I decided to do something about that. Making a tunnel which branched off from the throne room I created another Temple this one much larger than the one above and it had a strange metal device in the centre. The item (I had no name for it) could supply a Keeper with more magical energy if sacrifices were thrown into it. I had no idea how this worked but it easily testable as I simply ordered one of captured Humans to be thrown in.

I went on to order around the clock worship at the temple that would be organised so that at all times a few creatures would in there praising the Dark Gods. This would increase the flow of mana and could always have someone or something throne into the sacrifice device to give me an extra boost when needed.

The passageway leading to the larger Temple was to the left of my dragon throne (or to my right if I was sitting on throne) so on the opposite side I made a new tunnel that would led to my private area.

Accessing the many blueprints I had I started making my private area by creating an oversized bedroom. For now it looked rather plain but once I raided the surface for more spoils I was sure that it would look very luxurious. Still as plain as it was it wasn't without it comforts, a massive bed with silk sheets was brought into existence upon completion of the room.

I then went on to have the more complex rooms. Bathrooms which needed plumbing and stuff took longer to make but the Imps were able to handle it.

Next came smaller bedrooms dozens them linked to another corridor that led from bedroom. These would be the rooms for my harem as I wanted them to have their own beds for when they weren't pleasuring me.

Mentally I commanded my pet Drow to go live in one of them and I made an even bigger bathroom for the harem to use. And then I made it much bigger because lets face it women hog the bathroom so they'd need one big enough for all of them at the same time.

I went onto make a large kitchen and larder for my future concubines to use. I didn't want them just lying around when I wasn't using them so I made some rooms for them. In the kitchen they could take turns cooking for me and it would a simple enough matter to fill the larder with tinned goods later.

Recreation rooms were what I installed next. Not a casino as my whores could visit the ones upstairs but I made them an Olympic sized swimming pool that would require frequent cleaning but that was what Imps were for.

A personal library was built next to my bedroom once I got back to the surface I'd have a library or two emptied to supply with books. I didn't make one for my sex slaves to be as I didn't want them reading and getting ideas above their station. They'd be pets after all not people in my view. I wanted them kept nice and dumb with their heads only containing things man pleasing sluts needed to know.

Going through the knowledge that had been crammed into my head I went over the blueprints and decided on another study. I already had one near the Dungeon Heart but that was for work so I made for private study. The blueprint that had been rammed into my head was of a study much nicer than the first one I'd made so I used it to make this one.

I racked my brain and tried to think about what else I'd like down here. A smaller pool perhaps, one to relax in like a jacuzzi. No that required machinery that the Imps couldn't manufacture so maybe a sauna that was just hot rocks and steam nothing complex there. The Imps easily made one of those.

Then I realised I'd need a dressing with big mirrors so I could spend sometime creating clothing. I made a short tunnel linking my bedroom, which made me glad I had so much space to work with, and brought forth a small dressing room. Well it was small compared to the other rooms but it was more than large enough to hold what clothes I'd actually bother to create.

I thought about what to do next but there were so many blueprints in my mind I had trouble picking one and in the end I decided not to just start adding more rooms . Instead I simply shifted my awareness outward and took in the sight of my entire Dungeon. Once I saw my domain I couldn't but think how like a god I was. I'd created an empire in the darkness and the stone. I'd built a kingdom out of magic and rock. A domain of evil below the surface of the Earth.

I looked down upon my works and saw that it was good... well evil I suppose what with the enslaving and the torture but it looked freaking awesome. I had to spend some time just marvelling at what I had achieved.

But as pleased as I was with what I had accomplished here I knew the work wasn't over yet. I still had rooms to build and fortunately all that time spent marvelling at my work had allowed my mana reserves to fill once again.

For now I was done with my private area. I'd wait until inspiration struck before attempting to improve that area further. For now I'd work above that part of the Dungeon in order to see what I could do.

My mind was filled to bursting with room schematics and details of the creatures I could attract. I'd barely begun to uncover my full potential.

If I was going to unlock this potential I'd best get started. To begin with I branched out from the large armoury I'd made earlier and had the Imps create a barrack. This rooms purpose was to group creatures together to form squads rather just have your army attack as a rabble. Some creatures didn't get on with each other so I would have to be careful about how I organised my creatures.

Once the groups were made I could select a leader for each group or even led one myself. This would make attacking other Keepers far simpler as I wouldn't have to send my monsters off like a Mongol horde instead I could come with battle plans and try out strategies.

I went on to make an arena which was much like a combat pit only seats all around it the difference was in the arena it was to death. Two creatures go on in but only one comes out. Just like Thunderdome.

After waiting yet again for my mana to recharge. I started on my ambitious project to date. I was going to create an underground forest. This was something I had thought to be impossible after all trees need sunlight and rain which are two things you don't get underground but it was possible to get those simulate those things.

A very large space was needed and was quickly made. As I could create animal life plant life was no more straining but there was a lot of it. Keeping the trees alive was the straining part. Watering them could be handled by the Imps. But sunlight well that required something special. To be precise it required a sun-crystal which was as the name suggested a crystal that created sunlight.

This was a major drain on the mana but well worth it as the forest not only provided fruits it also attracted Wood Elves who were down right sexy and I wanted some.

To be worth while the forest had to be huge so I kept expanding it out away from the Dungeon knowing that I had miles upon miles to play with. That part of the underground had no signs of habitation and I scouted head with the Evil Eye Spell to be sure.

By the end of this my mana was tapped out and all that work had been rather mentally tiring as well so I decided to get some sleep for the first time in a long while. I disconnected from the Heart and teleported to my new bedroom. I was so tired that I simply laid on top of the silk sheets and allowed sleep to claim me.

**Gothic's Dungeon. Heart Chamber. Beneath Cardiff. **

Alarms woke from my sleep in my half awake state I tried to hit the snooze button on an alarm clock that didn't exist.

It took a few moments for me to remember what the hell was going in my life these days but it all came flooding back along with a headache but I had no time for aches I was under attack.

Quickly teleporting I went to the Heart chamber and touched the Heart so I could get a better idea of what the heck was going on around here.

A rabble of Goblins, Trolls and giant bugs had charged into my domain like with all the tactical skill of a football match crowd turned rioting mob.

I'd carefully placed Skeletons all around my Dungeon but a few guards, even ones as well trained as mine, were no match for the horde attempting to invade my kingdom. I mentally ordered all of my creatures to counter-attack knowing that was no time to organise them in the barracks.

That wouldn't be enough to stop this madness because my creatures were spread out in different lairs according to types that got along with each other. So it would take different amounts of time for each group to make it to the invasion point.

This meant that I would have to personally go and slow them down. This wasn't the best idea I could come up with as I hadn't actually fought anyone or anything in the flesh since becoming Keeper but I had no other choice.

To buy some time I collapsed the part of the Dungeon the creatures were in sacrificing a few Skeletons to slow my enemy down. This didn't help much as oddly coloured Imps started to clear the blockage and claim the space.

I returned to my body and teleported myself to the battle. Imps that looked unhealthy compared to mine ran upon seeing me which slowed down their takeover my domain's claimed space. But they'd already cleared the way and now several Goblins were charging me. I had just enough time to noticed that their weapons were rather crude compared to what my warrior creatures used but I had no time to think on what this meant as while they didn't look very impressive in design they did look deadly enough to hack me apart.

Blasts of lightening flew from my fingertips killing, or at least stunning, several Goblins before some huge Spider came at me. Normal sized spiders made my skin crawl but giant ones made my skin want to run away and hide in a corner.

Reacting rather than thinking I made a purple coloured magical shield appear between me and the oversized eight legged freak. Once the shock of this wore off I realised that nearly losing my grip on reality in order to gain all these spells had been really worth it.

The big bug battered my shield and I felt the strain as it tried to get at me. Perhaps it was driven to do so because it was hungry but I tried to not dwell on such thoughts and put more effort into the shield.

Soon the creature either got fed up of pointlessly bashing itself into the barrier between us or its Keeper forced it to stop. Either way its retreat was good for and it brought me enough time to throw a fireball at a massive fly which didn't enjoy the experience once bit as it fragile wings were set ablaze.

I was then nearly killed by a pair of overgrown Beatles. Which while an improvement over the Spider in terms of not making me want to scream like a little girl they were even deadlier as they tag teamed me. One battering at my shield while the other tried to attack me from the side. Thankfully for me the tunnels were to narrow for this plan to work. Still their efforts were somewhat effective as I was slowly being forced back and it seemed that I'd run out of tunnel before they ran out of energy.

In a move that was either sheer desperation or a true testament to my growing power. I was able to keep the shield up with one had and cast lightening with another striking one of the bugs before going on to stun the other.

With my psychic link to my creatures I urged them to come to me but since I wasn't connected to the Heart couldn't tell where they were. If they were already in combat then my urging would do nothing but serve as a distraction for them.

I need not of worried however. Some of my creatures did come to my side. High level creatures could teleport just as I could and soon I was standing along side Warlocks and Dark Mistresses who used their own spells to bring death to the invaders.

We attacked from range and as the passageway wasn't wide enough to allow more than a single oversized insect to charge us at a time we soon had the corridor blocked by bodies. With a powerful spell that blasted things I turned the corpses into body parts and cleared the way.

With fireballs, lightening and frost I killed many creatures and made it to the tunnel that the enemy had dug to my Dungeon.

Using my depleted magic I made some Imps and ordered them to clear this passage. Dead bodies were taken to the Graveyard while wounded hostile creatures were put in the cells. I didn't want bug creatures in my army so I'd likely just sacrifice them all or have them tortured to death.

That would have to wait as overgrown insects weren't the only things invading my Dungeon. I was under attack by Goblins and Trolls as well. Currently my Goblins and Trolls were fighting their kin from a different Dungeon, this would be a confusing mess if not for the fact that this enemy Keeper had gotten his or her forces to paint themselves a sickly green.

As I stepped over the body of an enemy Goblin who looked as if he'd been crushed under the weight of its own allies I noticed that it wasn't paint or dye that made them look sickly they were actually ill.

"Change of plan" I told one of the Imps "I want all the bodies from this battle burnt and then every creature of mine is to go and stand under the waterfall until they are clean".

I didn't want any of my creatures getting sick as I was unsure if my Heal Spell could remove illness as well as fix injuries. In fact I hadn't even realised that my creatures could get sick but it did make sense that they could given the conditions down here. Although given the variety of species living in my Dungeon I couldn't imagine a natural disease being able to infect all of them.

Also I had to take into account how well these diseased monsters fought. Some of them looked as if they shouldn't be able to move let alone fight yet not only were they fighting well a lot of them kept going despite being dealt horrible wounds.

It was almost as if they were followers of Nurgle or something. But that idea was silly... unless the Dark Gods being worshipped in the Temples were somehow like the Chaos Gods. But that seemed unlikely I hadn't seen any signs of mutations in the creatures that spent a lot of time in the temples.

The enemy Imps suddenly caught my attention they were expanding the battlefield widening the tunnel they'd made so that more of the enemy creatures could pour into my Dungeon. This was bad because while my army was made up of better fighters the enemy had numbers and they weren't dying easy. If the battle became a free for all it would suit the side with the most combatants and to many of my creatures had still not arrived.

I lashed out an mould covered Goblin with a Spell that looked like a ball of darkness made solid. The knowledge I'd been granted by the North-Western Alliance's leader told me that this spell was called the Death Spell. It cost more mana to cast that most Spells but it never failed to kill its target as long as that target didn't manage to dodge the magical attack or find cover.

The ball of darkness reduced the Goblin to a smear on the wall and while it had been a satisfying thing to do it had taken a lot of mana to perform. I was running low on magical energy now so rather than cast more Spells I used my ability to reshape energy and matter to create a sword.

Charging I cut down an enemy Imp that was busy at work but before the rest could fall to my blade they ran like the cowards they are. Which left only enemy creatures to deal with for now but I knew the little pests would be back.

A shot range out and a creature of mine dropped dead. A diseased Human holding a rifle brought his weapon around and pointed it at me. Without thinking I used the Haste Spell to speed my up and sliced the diseased Human solider in half. I hadn't realised how strong I'd become I must of levelled up again and because more physically powerful as well as magically.

More soldiers appeared armed with shotguns which proved highly effective in combat with my creatures as while most of them had armour it was medieval in design quite able to deal with swords and arrows but guns were another issue.

I had no idea how this other Keeper had been able to recruit people from British Territorial Army but I did intended to find out or at least I hoped to. It was possible that I might not find out if I ended up killing everything in my path between here and the enemy Keeper's Heart.

Still under the effects of the Haste Spell I was able to kill these soldiers and grab one of their weapons for myself. I fired the remaining shells in the shotgun at some of the enemy creatures spraying their insides all over the wall of my Dungeon. Assuming I won this battle my Imps were going to be very busy when it came time to clean up.

Reloading the weapon was impossible as I didn't know how to do that and there was no time to figure out right now. In any case I didn't really want to search the the dead Humans for more shells as they looked diseased. So I dropped the shotgun and went back to using a sword I found on the ground.

The sword was made of steel rather than iron meaning it was a creation of my Trolls. I knew this because the enemy had tarnished blades much cruder than mine but no less effective judging by the injuries some of my creatures had suffered. I'd of healed those wounds given the chance only my mana was low and I'd need what I had left for the counter-attack assuming that this battle ended in victory for me.

More Humans with guns appeared and without thinking I charged them ignoring the bullets fired in an attempt to end my life. I sliced and stabbed everything in my path enjoying the power and strength I had. Drenghul had certainly made me more powerful while nearly driving me mad.

More enemy creatures were arriving and they seemed to drop out of no where but I knew that the enemy Keeper was using that green hand thing to sweep creatures up and drop them here. I could do the same but I'd never bothered and due to my lack of practice I wouldn't of been able to match the enemy Keeper in such a thing anyway it was much better to mentally command the creatures to do something than waste energy carrying them around in a giant hand.

The tide of battle was turning in my favour despite enemy reinforcements, even though the sickly looking Imps had managed to widened the battlefield somewhat my more skilled monsters were able to keep the enemy trapped in this part of the tunnel. Having superior numbers doesn't mean much if you can't get them into the fight and the sheer amount of enemy creatures in one place was causing my rival Keeper trouble as his or her forces were all clumped together.

Now it was just a matter of breaking the enemy and charging down the tunnel while letting the Imps claim enemy territory so that I could enter the enemy Dungeon personally. The knowledge I'd been gifted told me that my powers would be limited in an enemy Dungeon and that I'd be better of letting my Imps claim as much space as possible before destroying the enemy Heart. I could just let my warriors handle it but I wanted to end this myself to see my enemies' fear as I ended their existence.

As my creatures brought me victory I stepped out of the fighting and waited for my mana to recharge. I didn't want to battle another Keeper until I had something to power my Spells with. I knew that whoever this Keeper was they would fight most fiercely once their Heart was under threat because I would in their place. If the situation were reverse this other Keeper would destroy my Heart with hesitation so I must not hesitate either.

It struck me then how much I had changed since becoming the type of being that I am now. I'd never been a Saint, so few people are, but while I'd always had some darkness in me I'd never embraced it like this while mortal. Yet upon my ascension to Dungeon Keeper I'd lost the parts of me that granted mercy and kindness. They were utterly gone in me and it seemed like there was nothing wouldn't do if given a reason. Granted I no desire to do evil for the sake of it, every cruelty I'd committed had purpose even if it might not seem a valid one.

But now I was quite eager to do some really horrible things to the one who'd ordered the attack on my kingdom. I had to kill them of course otherwise they might recover their strength and attack me again but aside from vengeance there wasn't really any reason for me to go and be cruel to this other Keeper. I should just go to his Heart and destroy it or let the Imps claim the Heart Chamber so I could gain another Heart but for some reason I wanted this other Keeper to suffer and die for what they had dared to do.

It made me realise how far from Human I now was. There was no compassion in me the only reason I wasn't going into that other Dungeon to slaughter every living thing I could find was because my desire to dominate was so strong and ruling a kingdom of corpses wouldn't be much fun.

Assuming that the enemy Keeper had sent all of its minions into battle the way ahead should be clear to be safe I sent some of the Goblins in first. This idea proved to be a good one as there were traps set along the tunnel that kill or maimed a few of my creatures. Those that survived the traps were dragged back to their lairs by the Imps so that they could recover.

I wasn't too worried about losses as I knew that upon seizing the enemy Dungeon new creatures would be drawn to serve me to replace the ones I'd lost. But it would take some time to train new creatures to the level of skill of the old ones so it was a bit annoying.

Thankfully there weren't that many trap I guessed that my foe had Imps set them while we were fighting in order to discourage a counter-attack but it wouldn't be enough to make me turn back I was too pissed off at this other Keeper to do anything else but utterly destroy them. Or I might enslave them if they begged enough.

It turned out that the Dungeon I was now invading wasn't as defenceless as I'd thought. Black Knights were dropped in my path my the Hand of the Keeper and I promised myself that I'd practice that Keeper power at some point because it was rather handy.

(Author Note: What a terrible pun.)

I crossed blades with a Black Knight who'd effortlessly slain the physically weaker Goblins I sent on a head. The dark armoured fighter was a far better swordsmen that I but he had no magic so once he'd disarmed me I created a magical shield with one hand and threw a fireball with the other. It took a few fireballs to kill the dark warrior but I was victories non the less.

It was then that I met my opponent and discovered something both fascinating and at the same time very disgusting. The enemy Keeper was somewhat like Drenghul in that he or it had taken a form of a horror beyond that of man or creature. This Keeper also floated off the ground but it had feet and they were not pretty to look at.

This Keeper looked like a half dead man who was wasting away from some nasty illness and it even smelled like a rotting thing. The overall effect was that of a Lich that had taken a bath in raw sewage.

The knowledge crammed into my head told me that a Keeper bodies acted as a body normally did. For example my feet touched the floor because gravity effected me. Also my body could be injured because I was flesh and blood. Drenghul's form didn't follow the rules I had to and it seemed that this Keeper didn't follow them either.

"I serve Cailleach " said the rotting corpse Keeper in a wet voice "I spread disease in her name".

Okay then.

I sent a fireball at the Cailleach worshipper which stunned my opponent. I knew that if you destroyed a Keepers corporeal body they couldn't just reform right away as it took time to recover from the 'death'.

Using both hands I cast two fireballs at my foe which he/she or it didn't enjoy at all. I was about to repeat my success when I was distracted by barking. Two massive Hellhounds (a breed of dog mixed with demons) charged at me their foamed mouths a clear indication that they suffered from rabies.

With a mental command I made my two most powerful creatures, both Dark Angels engage, the demonic dogs. The hell puppies as large and as deadly as they looked were no match for my fallen Angels and the way was made clear for me to chase after my prey.

Low on mana I borrowed a weapon from one of my Trolls and tested the weight of the warhammer before muttering the words 'It's Hammer Time'. There was no point saying it loudly as none of my minions would get it but it made me smile.

This Dungeon was much more well laid out than mine so it wasn't hard to find the Heart Chamber. Unlike my domain this place was easier to get around and while this might make things easier on the Imps who has to maintain the Dungeon it did make it easier for an invader to find the Heart. In my Dungeon finding the Heart would take much longer and its maze like quality had attracted the rare Minotaur which had made up for difficulty my creatures had when navigating their home. Or at least it had until I'd sold them.

Entering the Heart Chamber I was set upon my dozens of level one Imps that this Keeper had conjured as a last line of defence. My creatures and I made short work of them and I was still cutting them down with short lived lightening bolts even as the enemy Heart came under attack.

My enemy Keeper teleported in front of me and send a green bolt of energy my way. I brought up a shield just in time but I felt weaker as the green coloured Spell splashed over the purple field.

Despite being under magical attack I was pleased. The enemy Keeper's Heart was close to being destroyed and as long as I kept my foe distracted he,she or it wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

I sent a powerful fireball at the sick looking Keeper and the diseased thing went flying impacting the green coloured walls. I prepared another fireball but it was a wasted effort as the Dungeon Heart cracked under the blows of my creature's weapons and then was smashed to pieces.

Looking around I noticed that with the destruction of the Keeper whose name I'd never discovered the Dungeon that was now mine was rapidly becoming less putrid in appearance. While fighting to get here I hadn't really noticed that this place had reflected its master. The walls had been covered in mould and slime but as the Imps that funny little dance of theirs the place became like my domain.

Scum coated walls became clean and smooth dark obsidian lit by proper torches. The stone beneath my feet went from cracked paving to neatly carved slabs of rock. Even the bad smell was fading away.

Whatever it was that had caused this Dungeon to look like a stronghold of Nurgle right out Warhammer Fantasy seemed to have lost its grip on this place. The disease had been cured by my claiming of this place which was a weight off my mind as I had worried that my creatures might become sick if they started living in this Dungeon.

Free from this worry there was now nothing stopping me from celebrating this victory and I had a lot to celebrate as not only I had survived an invasion I'd gone on to destroy my attacker. And I'd gained quite a bit of new territory as well which was good as more rooms meant more creatures would come seeking to serve me replacing my losses, perhaps my army would even grow in numbers.

Upon inspecting my new holdings I discovered that I'd also gained a respectable amount of gold, and jewels. Gold was of limited value given that Keepers could create it using magic but it was still good for paying creatures and the small amount of gained jewels were worth quite a bit.

I'd do a proper inspection of my new property later for now I felt like having a good drink and maybe I'd get my Drow to suck me off before I rested for a while. That battle had drained me mentally as well as magically so I needed to get some more rest.

In a puff of smoke I left the newly conquered Dungeon and went back to my private quarters hoping to get a proper night's sleep.

**Gothic's Dungeon. Keeper's Chambers. Beneath Cardiff, Wales. **

Upon breaching the surface my Imps had under the cover of darkness been able to salvage many useful things. Not just raw materials like metals and wood but also people who had been dragged in my domain and locked in the cells. This in turn had attracted Dark Mistresses who were working hard to convert people to my side.

The Imps had also brought down what food they could find as even the simplest of creatures couldn't live off chicken alone (or rats in the case of the Goblins) the best food had been brought to me. It was mostly tinned goods but there was some booze as well but not a lot as most of it had looted by rioters when western civilization had begun to collapse and millions had fled the cities.

Currently I was enjoying a four course meal and it was perhaps the best meal of my life despite that the fact that it was tinned goods that didn't really go that well together. Still when you've been living off chicken for a while a tin of peaches become a delicacy fit for a king. Even the fact that I washing down tinned goods with a rather cheap white wine did nothing to subtract from my enjoyment.

I'd tried to create some decent food using my magical powers but despite the fact that I could conjure up simple items such a bits of clothing and even basic weapons I hadn't been able to manifest cooked food. Live animals and plants I could handle but cooking them would of taken to long so I had to settle for what I could get in a hurry.

I finished my meal and watched as Human woman, a rather attractive Human woman, cleared away the mess I had made. She avoided eye contact with me and seemed unwillingly to draw any sort of attention to herself. The woman also did everything with exaggerated carefulness.

The Dark Mistresses' ability to turn the most stubborn captives into a devoted servant was one an amazing one but I had to ask myself why this conversion made my Human slaves so timid around me. Were they expecting me to lash at them for no reason or did they worry I'd kill them for any perceived failures? If so they were worrying over nothing I wasn't going to waste a good servant just because they dared to look me in the eye or dropped something.

Sure I felt a desire to destroy or dominate everything I could get my grubby little mitts on but I wasn't some deranged psychopath who'd kill, torture and maim just because he could. Well maybe a little but the only thing my slave girls had to fear from me a vigorous fucking which might make them a little sore. Even they did need punishing I'd likely just spank them if it was a minor offence.

It was was rather tempting to play with the blond girl but I decided not to right now as I was rather tired. I might be attacked again soon and would need my strength. With that in mind I went to bed this time I bothered to undress and even ordered the blond girl into bed with me in case I changed my mind about having sex. In the end I didn't do anything to her and simply got some sleep so that when I woke up I'd have the energy to see to the needs of my creatures and to tend to my domain.

Author Note.

Just did a quick rewrite I hope it makes sense. If it doesn't let me know and I can do an edit.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author Notice. **

**I did a bit of rewriting for the last few chapters, nothing major plot wise I just made it so that DK Gothic is below Cardiff. Also Keepers now longer don't get to chose their physical form and stay corporal as it highlights how important it is that some Keepers don't have Human form any more.**

**Ragnar92. **

**I'm trying to. **

**Ressan. **

**Well lots of Keepers from different alliances and some that aren't part of any group went to that version of Azeroth and others. The Keeper one from the North-Western Alliance would down play any troubles he was having so as not to appear weak. **

**WarmasterSamiel **

**Your welcome And yes he'll be crushing some neighbours while trying to avoid being crushed, but he's moving on to another world this chapter. **

**Well he's a little bit busy to do any research but he will find ways to enhance himself. **

**Lord Eric**

**I don't know xanth **

**Jp **

**An Ally will seek revenge but not Keepers. I don't think a diseased Keeper would have many friends. **

**Deconneur **

**Albion has Krakens? I don't recall those. **

**Dungeon Keeper Gothic. Part Four. **

**Gothic's Dungeon. Heart Chamber. The Mistpeak Mountains. Albion. **

After defeating the Keeper that served the Dark Goddess Cailleach I'd gone to bed but I didn't get much sleep as the alarm was soon raised again. My domain had once more come under attack only this time the attack was not an army of disease stricken monsters and people it was disease itself.

The Veiled Goddess of Celtic legend had avenged her follower by unleashing a deadly plague upon my minions. All of my creatures, even the Vampires bizarrely enough, had fallen sick and died. Only the Skeletons had been spared, as nothing but brute force attacks ever effected them, and the Imps who had been able to endure the infliction because they could directly draw upon my mana to keep healing themselves.

In order to perverse some of my military might I'd used the Imps that could still work to drag the dying Humans to the jail cells. I'd packed in as many as I could and even built more cells in order to hold the sick people. Their deaths had been long, drawn out affairs that were cruel even by the standards of Keepers.

The non-Human creatures had been put to death by my hand and their bodies were burned in the workshop's furnaces. They and their personal effects were nothing but ashes now.

I'd then isolated my Dungeon by collapsing the tunnel which led to Keeper Black's domain and I had also gotten the remaining Imps to fortify my walls as much as possible. I didn't want to risk this mystical pestilence spreading as I still had some mercy left for the species I'd once been a member and there was no need to take others down with me.

Then I just waited for death, but it never came. I had been infected as well but as a Keeper my life was tied to the Hearts I controlled I would never die as long as one of the Hearts remained intact.

My mana was diverted to keeping me and what Imps I could afford to support healthy enough to keep my large Dungeon from falling apart. I still hoped that in time the plague would end and that I would be able to rebuild before I was destroyed by another Keeper who was willing to risk the disease spreading to their forces in order to destroy a rival.

For a time I'd sat by the Dungeon Heart seeking comfort its consent pulsing light and heat. Lacking anyone to talk to or any tasks to perform I'd had only myself for company, but not for long.

At first I'd thought that the voice was that of Cailleach who would tempt me into her service by offering an end to my suffering. But it was not the Veiled One it was male sounding voice that went by the title of 'The Red Dragon'.

That was a title I had claimed for myself 'Dungeon Keeper Gothic The Red Dragon' so understandable for a while I had thought that I had lost what little sanity I had left and was talking myself. But in fact I had been wrong.

I got the title of 'The Red Dragon' from the Dragon that adorns the Welsh flag but I'd forgotten that those sort of symbols tend to have their origins in myths and legends. I'd also forgotten that those type of myths and legends were in fact pieces of a half remembered history. The beings once worshipped as gods were not only real they were also active once again, and if the Celtic goddess of plagues could be real why not Dewi the Great Red Serpent.

History books that I recovered from a library during a night-time raid of the surface had told me that the Dragon on the Welsh flag was in fact a Dragon connected to stories of King Arthur and Merlin. The Red Dragon symbolised Wales defeating the White Dragon which represented the Saxons.

Of course now I understood that these events might actually have happened that it wasn't a King's dream or a Wizard's prophecy but there had in fact been a battle between two Dragons one of which was the embodiment of the pagan god Dewi.

The whole thing reminded me of the events of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, the part when Martian becomes an avatar of Akatosh and kicks The Deadric Prince Dagon's ass. I imagined that something similar could of happened long ago and a god in the form a Dragon brought divine smack down upon on another Dragon. Such an event would be well remembered, but over time the story would change with retelling becoming just a story.

Really it shouldn't really of surprised me that I'd end up talking to a Dragon God. Dragons were worshipped all over the world after all, there had to be something behind the idea of the Dragon given that it was so well known across the globe.

The Celtic god Dewi called himself David when we first started to speak. David is my middle name which to me had supported the idea that I was just talking to myself, and that perhaps I had developed some sort of spilt personality. But that view of the situation didn't last. David knew things I couldn't possible know and had proven that he was in fact a Dragon god when I finally given in and sworn to serve him.

The deity hadn't given itself an easy task when deciding to turn me into its follower. I'd resisted the idea of devoting myself to one of the gods because I'd seen where it led. Drenghul and the Cailleach worshipper had devoted themselves to one higher power, and both become something so different from myself that I couldn't imagine what it was like to be them.

However Dewi, or David as I was to call him when we spoke mind to mind, had convinced me that serving him wouldn't led me to such a fare as unlike Cailleach the Veiled One, The Great Red Serpent did not work its will through spheres of influence such as war, disease or madness.

Instead he was all about inspiring action. He saw himself as a symbol of power, wisdom and the overcoming of adversity. These things I could embrace as a leader needed power, wisdom and the ability to overcome whatever stood in this way.

And David offered me these things. In his service I'd gain power, and I'd be gifted the wisdom I needed to avoid catastrophes like that which had led to me abandoning my world of birth and beginning again inside the mountains of Mistpeak.

With this new power and wisdom not only would I be able to rebuild my strength, but I'd be better than I was before. I'd have greater control over the lesser creatures who served me and they would fear me like all mortals feared the Dragon.

There were downsides to this arrangement, there always is in such deals. Dragons are prideful creatures filled with a desire to dominate and also I had gotten into the habit of having riches around my bed, my love of silver over gold was gone as well.

Still the arrangement had overall benefited me. The effects of the pact being made had been felt almost at once. Despite my sickness I'd gathered my strength and made it to the temple nearest my chambers. Lacking any life but my own to sacrifice I'd cut myself and let the blood drip into a bowl while formally swearing myself to the Dragon god.

Within moments of making this covenant things had improved for me. First a hot dry wind had blown through my Dungeon like the breathe of a god (which very well could have been) driving the curse of Cailleach out and restoring my Dungeon to its former glory. Gone was the slime coating the walls, gone was the smell that had filled the air and gone was the sickness which had drained my mana to stave off. And I'd not only been cured but I'd also felt myself grow mightier in both power and physical toughness.

But even with this enhancements I'd had to leave Earth, at least for now, as I was too vulnerable to attack given that I only had Skeletons left to guard me and it would take to long to train any creatures who came through the portal once I reopened it.

I'd been planning to venture to Albion in any case and after my new patron had banished the plague it seemed a good a time as any to move onto greener pastures.

The move had been a simple one (well there is no such thing as an easy move but this one was relatively painless) as the portal had been prepared for this use for some time. All I'd had to was to get the Imps to carry Keeper's Carl Heart through the portal and then I would link with it and make it my primary Heart.

As the Keeper's life in tied to his Hearts I can't venture to a world that doesn't have one of my Hearts upon it, this is true for all Keepers, so the information that had been rammed into my head by the Lovecraft fan leader of the North-Western Alliance couldn't tell how the Imps are able to set the Heart up so its half in the ground and has an already claimed open space around it.

What followed after was weeks of hard work. I threw myself into the creation of a Dungeon that would put any others know to me to shame. I had an entire mountain range to work with so I wasn't lacking for space, nor was I lacking for materials. In the Mistpeak mountains there was plenty of metal and coal to be dug up. If I had any trolls here they'd be happy as pigs in muck.

While the work progressed I'd kept the Imps from claiming the four arch way portal that had been discovered near the new Heart Chamber. Dungeon Hearts and portals could always be found close together but I no idea why.

Unlike one arch way portals, four arch way portals are simple doors allow travel from one world to the next with the ease of crossing a threshold of your front door. Four archway portals are far more complex and can allow entry for creatures (and heroes ) from many different worlds. A Keeper would never migrate through one of those gates unless very desperate as there was no way of knowing what the world you'd enter would be like.

One arch way portals were very different they could be programmed ,for lack of a better word, so that linked to a world chosen by the Keepr. this was done by Warlocks and my Warlocks had completed that task before they had died.

The reason why I kept the discovered four arch way portal closed was because I didn't want to allow any creatures to enter my Dungeon just yet. Keepers could control a certain amount of creatures for every Heart they could call their own.

Given the current size and state of my Dungeon I'd only attract Goblins and perhaps if I was lucky a Black Knight, if I was very unlucky I'd be swarmed with oversized bugs. This was something I didn't want.

What type of creatures a Keeper draws into service depends on a number of different things. I'd come to understand the finer details when my benefactor deity had gifted me with the wisdom needed to utilise the knowledge I'd had inserted into my head.

The reason why I'd never attracted the giant insects because those creatures liked dark, dank dirty places were and I'd kept my Dungeon well lit, clean and as dry as possible. Also a Keeper could on a subconscious level effect what creatures were attracted to his service.

After going through the vast amounts of information stored in my mind. I'd come up an idea on how to gain creatures that were more Human, at least in form into my service. My simple idea was to capture and convert Hero units rather than just kill them.

For this plan to work the cruel but useful Dark Mistresses would be required as would the torture chambers (of which I had provided) but also victims to play with in order to bring them into my service so I wouldn't be getting them any time soon.

Which was a shame as I also needed them in order to make use of the Humans on this world. Humans weren't drawn to come and serve a Keeper as creature were, they had to be broken in spirit before that would happen. The same applied for the non-Human heroes as well, some of which I badly wanted at my side.

So while this meant that I wouldn't be gaining any drop dead gorgeous Elven Mages or sexy warrior Rogues for a while I could get at least get some Dark Elves (who were more attractive than the game's version) and maybe Witches the female version of the Warlocks.

Elves were natural archers and thus liked for there to be a large shooting range in a Dungeon and they also liked trees which weren't that tricky to grow underground once you had the blueprint for the subterranean woods and orchids.

Creatures that were close to Human didn't like having to sleep in large group lairs, they liked having their own space and that was possible by creating what I called bedrooms. This was done by making lairs large to house one creature and then keeping them completely separate from each other. Bathrooms had to be group things but that was meant group showers which were fun to watch.

I had plans to create an army made up of attractive females and Skeletons, which wasn't that hard to do once you achieved a good understanding of what a Keeper could do when with the Dungeon Heart.

It was the Heart that bound the creatures to the service of the Keeper, and made betrayal impossible. This applied to even Humans and creatures of light magic although they had to be broken in spirit before they could be bound to the Heart.

Creatures that volunteered their services could leave a Keeper's service when ever they wished but they physical had to leave the Dungeon to that. But those tortured into serving a Keeper were in it for life and unlife too if they became Skeletons.

The Dungeon I was building was a vast one and so I spent a lot of time in communion with the Heart, not only overseeing the work but also keeping a watchful eye upon my domain.

During the meeting with the other alliance members I'd heard reports that light magic creatures and heroes that had attacked Keepers. And while I wanted to capture some of those hero types I wasn't yet ready to take them on since I only had Skeletons and a few dozens Imps as a defence force.

However Murphy is a sod and as my Imps were claiming a space around an underground lake I came under attack. A party of twenty warriors had somehow found me, perhaps by using a hero gate as they were clearly not native to the world above, and judging by how well armed and armoured they were they had been expecting a fight.

Most of the attacking force was made up of Dwarves, ten soldiers in chain-mail with both an axe and a shield. At the rear of the formation were two very attractive Elven archers who wore light armour made from sort of dark green metal. Two rogues, also female, were scouting ahead and it was their finding of my Imps that alerted me to trouble. I had no alarms so the Imps had been ordered to alert me if they saw something that should be down here.

Ahead of the Dwarves, but behind the scouts, was the leader of this gang and her retinue. A Gandalf like Wizard complete with floppy hat and staff provided magical services. There was also a large warrior who must have been half giant judging my the size of him. A darkly dress thief or assassin worked with them. Next to the leader was a Human male knight who was dressed in fine armour that I knew would look great in the trophy room.

But it was the leader of this group that drew my eye the most. She was an Angel, complete with snowy white wings and the most beautiful set of white-gold armour that looked as if it offered great protection while also managing to seem sexy but not in a way that cheapened her.

I at once wanted her bowing at my feet. I could already picture it as the desire to dominate those around me grew stronger. Dewi had not been kidding when he said that I would embody what it meant to be the servant of a Dragon god.

For a few seconds I wondered if it was a coincidence that the type of good guys that I wanted to convert were coming to me just when I was not just most vulnerable to attack but also was eager to start gathering troops.

Until I'd started to expand into this open area my Dungeon had been growing slowly as I made sure the Imps fortified very wall. Then just when I was moving into a large unclaimed space enemies they had arrived. But there was no more time for such thoughts and it could simply be random chance in any case.

Quickly deciding on a plan of action I used the Keeper's Hand (a spell well know to anyone who played the games) to pick up the Skeletons and drop them off by the lake. They alone would not be able to stop the heroes, but they would slow them down and give the working Imps time to run.

To end this fight I would personally have to destroy the invaders but they had numbers and magic I wouldn't be prepared for. It was very likely that I would die today but I felt no fear only a sense that any foe could be defeated, that any enemy who stood in my way could be beaten. These were feelings my patron had instilled into me. I would not run or put up a desperate sneaky defence of my Dungeon Heart I would met the attackers in open battle by the lake.

Disconnecting from the Heart I took a second or two to mentally prepare myself and then teleported to the newly acquired territories. My arrival was not as flashy as some means of magical transportation, but it did not go unnoticed. The thief or assassin in black leather fired a small crossbow at me and as the bolt flew towards me time to slow.

With a swing of the magical blade (a gift from the Dragon god who I now served) I saved myself an injury by having the sword intercept the bolt deflecting it. I then brought up a magic shield just in time to protect myself from a lightening bolt sent my way by the Gandalf lookalike.

The Angel, who was as deadly in combat as I had hoped she would be, battered two Skeletons aside with her golden blade and charged me. I got a sense of danger from that magnificent weapon and I knew with utter certainty that this sword could kill me right here right now despite the fact that my Dungeon Heart was far away.

However my sword was also powerful in its own way. It was a Dragonblade, a weapon forged not by a Keeper's ability to create simple objects by turning mana into matter or by the hand of a Troll Blacksmith, no my blade was forged by the fiery breath of a pagan god and was infused with some of the Great Serpent's power.

The two enchanted swords met and while the Angel's blade glowed with holy light mine seemed to glow as well but with the light a great fire give off.

None of the other fighters here dared to interferer with this duel, even my own Skeletons back off which was strange behaviour for them.

"Die fallen one!" shouted the female winged being "perdition awaits you".

I was no demon, although I had been called that by captive Humans, I was Dungeon Keeper Gothic, the Red Dragon and Servant of Dewi the Great Red Serpent. I would not be cast down to hell by one Angel, right now I left as if the entire host of heaven would have to be sent in order to vanquish me.

Suddenly a blast wave hit me and sent me flying into a smoothed out rock wall hard enough to crack the stone. Thankfully Keepers are tough and I'd become tougher since becoming the Serpent's servant.

I recovered just in time to roll out of the way as the golden sword was driven into the rock sending up sparks. Before I could pick myself up the Angel pulled out the blade span on the spot her wings fanning as she moved. With a flourish her weapon was ready to swipe through the air and end my life.

Rage filled me I refused to die on the floor like a dog and that rage fuelled a spell I hadn't until now had access to. I sent out my own blast wave of energy which sent the Angel flying into the lake and even knocked over a few of her subordinates.

Then I began some sort of transformation. I could feel my body changing, stretching, growing into something else. The process was painful but mercifully quick and soon I was something else and it was a very big something else.

The ground beneath my feet (only they weren't feet they were claws) shook as I moved I went over to the lake and looked at my reflection.

I was now a Dragon.

My body was covered in blood red scales and I had teeth the size of bread knives. My eyes glowed with malevolence and power, and my mouth grew wet as I smelled the fresh meat around me.

The creatures around me moved back as I turned my terrible gaze upon them. The fight or flight reflex is a strong one in more than Humanity and the Dwarves broke and ran as I breathed fire upon them. I killed four before they even started to run and two others screamed as there clothing and hair caught fire.

'Gandalf' brought up a shield which protected him from my exhaled flame, but the Knight wasn't. His shield was made of metal which was a conductor of heat as was his armour so he was baked alive.

The leather clad warrior fired her crossbow but the weapon was that of an assassin and while it would kill a target lacking amour, my body was well protected, the bolt simply shattered upon impact.

The two Elven archers were to far back to be effected by my attack and they fired their longbows. Which had more power behind them. Their shots were good and only the fact that I turned my head at the last second prevented me from taking an arrow to the eyes. However the arrows must have been enchanted as they were able pierce the skin of my face.

I felt pain and reacted as a beast would. My tail lashed out and hit the Angel, who had been trying to sneak up on me, back into the water. Then I lurched forward and brought a claw down crushing the spell caster whose shield did not defend against physical attacks.

The Knight was already dead but that didn't stop me from swiping at him with my claws. The corpse was mutilated by the assault, and if I hadn't had other things to deal with I would of stopped to feast upon the well cooked flesh.

Another crossbow bolt hit me but again failed to do any harm. The leather wearing fast attacker withdrew daggers while the Elves fired off their next shots.

Without thinking about it I lowered my head and the arrows hit the scales upon my back which were much tougher than the hide protecting my face, so the arrows had no effect. Neither did the daggers when they came, they just bounced off me.

Suddenly an axe was buried in one of my legs, the blow hurt and I lashed out at the being who had wounded me. It was the half giant man, he had somehow escaped my notice and had been able to land a mighty blow.

Ignoring the pain I kicked out sending the massive warrior flying before turning my head to breathe fire upon him. He was roasted by my fire and reduced to something that if he had been a slab of meat would be called overdone.

The two scouting rogues had likely fled as well or were otherwise kept busy as not all of my Skeletons had been taken down. Perhaps they had even made a run for it in order to attack my Heart but I sensed no danger to it. My Imps would fight to defend the Heart Chamber and two Humans wouldn't be able to defeat them all.

Yet again arrows hit me this time one found a soft spot and I roared in pain. The assassin or thief made the foolish move of drawing a short but sharp looking blade and the charging to strike my underbelly. Unfortunately for the assassin or thief my new Dragon body is very big and when I lowered my head to avoid further arrows I crushed the enemy beneath me.

The two archers were now alone and got the smart idea of trying to run, but the Skeletons were still active which cut off their escape. My desire to dominate was what spared their lives, my mind was becoming clearer now and I spoke without moving my mouth.

"Submit!".

The 'Or die' wasn't said but my scary voice implied that part.

The Elves made up their minds fast and dropped their weapons before kneeling. They'd made a wise choice and their lives would be spared. I might not even have them tortured if they swore oaths of service and were willing to punish each other for my amusement. Even my dragon form my bizarre sexual tastes remained the same.

Imps moved into take the bodies and captives to the cells. In the confusion of battle its not always clear if you have killed or merely wounded someone so badly they can't move, so the cells were the best place for them and if the rest were all dead then I had other uses for them.

My rage began to lessen and I felt the transformation begin to reverse. Turning back to my Human form was far less painful than becoming a Dragon, and I soon found myself standing by the lake.

Examining myself I noted that my street clothes were torn but not ripped to pieces as I had feared they would be, not because I worried about being nude but because I really liked those clothes. The transformation was clearly very magical like an Animagus from Harry Potter's world rather than the product of becoming cursed like say a Werewolf.

I didn't have much time to think on this as I heard a moan and turned to see the Angel who had led this attack was getting back up. She was impressively committed to her goal. Despite being soaked to the bone as well as battered and bruised she still looked very sexy.

"I'm so having you in my bed once the Dark Mistresses have done their work" I told the heavenly warrior.

The Dark Mistresses would arrive soon, now that I had toys with them to play with. The chance to torture one of heaven's best would bring them to them in droves.

"I would never willingly marry one such as you" said the injured leader.

"Who said anything about marriage" I countered "I just want to get you into bed".

"That would be a sin" replied the bleeding warrior "sex outside of marriage is forbidden".

Wow what was this the dark ages or something?.

"Well since I can't force you to marry me. I'll just have to settle for living in sin". I pointed out.

But first I'd have to knock her out, a blow to the head was risky but I doubted I could restrain her by myself. I moved to knock her out with the hilt of the Dragon made blade, which amazingly was somehow still in my hand when the Angel said.

"I said I would not marry you willingly but that does not mean that you have to slay me. Are you are not man enough to claim me?".

Lowering my weapon I asked her what she meant by that. It was odd for an enemy to supply information like this but she had lost a lot of blood (which was red I noted) and Angels aren't mortal creatures their ways are alien to one who still saw things as a man would.

The Angelic solider looked confused until she realised that I wasn't trying to trick but that I really had no idea what she was talking about. She went on to explain that there were traditions that her group of celestials followed. One of these costumes was 'to the victor goes the spoils' it was rule older than man and pretty much a law so built into her culture that didn't need enforcing.

I was the victor therefore I owned those I had defeated as well as their armour and weapons. Any of her followers who had survived this battle were now my property. I could enslave them or have the executed at my whim.

Female slaves were added to the winner's harem (if he had such a thing) and so the winged warrior had thought I would take her bed. Sex outside of marriage was a sin, doubly so for an Angel, so she had assumed that I'd force her into marriage

I checked her over, admiring the shoulder length blonde hair and large breasts, and then decided that I would marry her because it would make things easier for me, Plus there was no rule that stopped me from having sex outside marriage or even from having more than one wife.

"Fine I'll marry you" I told the Angel "how do I?"

My question was cut short as an aura of golden energy surrounded my wife to be. It was a healing spell of some kind judging by how healthy she looked once the light faded.

"You have not claimed me yet, Fallen One" reminded the warrior "you must defeat me in battle for that to happen".

This woman was clever she'd brought herself time to use a healing by distracting me with talk. I knew she had been telling the truth as I knew (thanks to data upload) that Angels can not lie. So all I had to do was to beat her and then she'd be mine.

The celestial being raised her sword and waded through the water towards me, it was waist deep where she stood and slowed her down greatly. An idea came to me as I noticed how high the water was.

I conjured up lightening but didn't aim in directly at my enemy, instead it struck the surface of the water. Bolts that were both electrical and magical danced across the surface of the lake and the Angel screamed. I kept up the attack until she collapsed and then moved to claim my prize.

**Gothic's Dungeon. The Throne Room. The Mistpeak Mountains. Albion. **

A few days after the attack the task of creating my Dungeon was done at least for now. I'd likely be adding rooms now and again, and perhaps I'd do a few expansions if I needed to, but for now the work was over. This gave me time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labour as well to deal with a few other matters. But rather than connect to the Heart inside I went to the throne room and directed things from there.

My throne room was a grand affair that had taken a lot of mana to create as not only was it a large chamber but it was also of a unique design.

New designs, ones that didn't follow the blueprints for Dungeon rooms, always cost much more to create than rooms already planned out. This room cost the same amount of mana as all of my libraries put together. Which was quite a lot of mana given how much I'd spent just to built a library large to hold all the books taken from a public library, and that was just my private library.

Like in the last throne room I'd built this throne in this one was elevated on a stage that required climbing a few wide steps to reach. This ensured that no one standing while I was sitting was higher up than me. But at least they had a lush red carpet to walk upon which led from the double doors that were entrance to this room all the way to the throne.

Light was provided roaring by fireplaces that burned with blue flames that consumed no wood or coal instead they were fuelled by magic. They were a small, but constant drain. on my mana yet they were still well worth it as they provided light and heat without creating smoke.

Behind my throne was my banner. The black flag with the red dragon upon it. I hoped to one day have that display in flag form and have those flags flying proudly on many worlds.

My throne was a seat built upon a display of spiky obsidian rock. There were chains attached to the arms of the throne that would allow me to leash my favourite pets to my seat of power.

To either side of the throne hung two cages that would also allow to be to put any creatures I owned on display. The newly arrived Dark Mistresses would their plaything into those cages between torture sessions in order to add humiliation to their suffering. And they'd do it each other too.

Currently I was sitting on my throne listening to one of the Imps who had levelled up enough to be capable of taking orders and carrying out tasks without me needing to link to its mind via the Heart.

Imps weren't really alive like the other creatures that served the Keepers. They appeared by magic fully formed and able to work but they still grew mentally and magically as time went by. Higher level Imps could tap into my mana to perform spells like Haste (which allowed one to move so fast you were blur) and at the highest levels they could transport themselves with magic from place to place in a small puff of smoke.

They also got smarter and more skilled the longer they were 'alive'. I hadn't really notice that Imps could not only understand my spoken commands but also reply verbally if I wished them too. The highest level Imp ,who was also the one who had led the defence of the Dungeon Heart when it came under attack from two stealthy rogues, now acted as my personal assistant. Its job was to ensure that my orders were carried during the times when I didn't feel like connecting to the Heart and having an out of body experience.

"So what else has entered the Dungeon?" asked the Imp who I yet to name "aside from the Dark Mistresses".

"Three scary doggies" answered the creature.

Imps understand their masters very well but it takes time for them to learn to speak. It made them sound like children but I figured that given the fact that this Imp wasn't even a month old it was doing quite well.

"Hellhounds?" I said seeking clarification.

The Imp nodded and said.

"Yes, Keeper".

I'd had the kennels needed to house the Demon Dogs ready for sometime. Having the Hounds of Hell in my Dungeon was a risky business. As while they were loyal to the Keeper, amazingly so considering they were part demons, they were very animal like and had a habit of eating the Imps if they weren't fed or if their kennels weren't cleaned out regularly/

Keepers attracted Hellhounds who were still puppies into the service. Like real dogs the Demonic Canines were raised by the mother until they were ready to make their own way in the world. Male Hell Hounds from the litter stayed together as a pack and sought out a new owner as a group.

But they were not yet fully grown and their adult form would depend on what sort of diet they were fed. Somehow the part demon mutts took on the traits of what they ate as they matured. The more they had to eat the faster they grew. I was planning on feeding them great amounts of roasted Dwarf, as I had quite a bit of that sort of meat spare.

I was looking forward to seeing what sort of adult Hell-hounds they would be if they were fed a few Dwarfs each. At least they wouldn't run short of food I had a Knight baked in his own armour and half giant warrior that wasn't a total blackened mess.

"Feed one of the 'scary doggies' a few of dead dwarves" I told the Imp "then give the other two the Knight and the Wizard and half of that half giant each. Then tell one of the Dark Mistresses that they are to train the Hell-hounds".

I was curious to see if this diet would produce three different Hell Hounds, if it did I'd have to make sure I wrote a short book about this as the mental download I'd gotten didn't tell what kind of adult Demon Dogs I'd get from feeding them different foods.

Th Demonic Doggies weren't the only thing that wanted into my Dungeon. I'd turned away quite a few creatures as I wanted a different kind of army now. The only reason I'd let the dogs in was because they were really just animals that could be trained by a Dark Mistress.

Rather than have an army made up of Goblins, Trolls and other rather ugly creatures I was planning on having an army made up of attractive women. The massive Dungeon I was building within the Mistpeak mountains was going to be full of females who existed purely to fulfil my needs and satisfy my wants.

This plan sounded simple but it was actually rather risky. In order to get the girls I wanted I'd have to allow the hero gate near my Dungeon to stay open in the hopes that some more of the do-gooders came here so I could defeat more of them.

At least raiding the surface would be easier, or at least I hoped it would be. Until I interrogated one of the natives I wouldn't know what was going on in the world. I'd have to raid a settlement and drag everyone who lived there down.

Once in my domain the women could be enslaved (if they were young and attractive enough) and then men and ugly women would be put in the cells to die a slow death would that turn them in Skeletons. Then again I could sell all the males back on Earth, lots of Keepers back on that world had uses for slaves that I did not.

As for the female children well perhaps some sort of crèche could be set up far away from me. I'd spare a few of the less attractive women to care for the brats and have them raised from a young age to serve me.

Sitting back on my throne I wondered at what point had I started to see enslaving people via torture in order make them my pets and killing people before sometimes feeding their dead bodies to monsters as things that were just business as usual. I found that sort of thing quite normal now.

But there were still things that did still surprise me. Turning into a Dragon had been an unexpected turn of events, oh and I had gotten married, to an Angel. It had been an odd courtship to say the least. I'd beaten her nearly to death while in my newly discovered Dragon form and then after she explained how the whole spoils of war thing worked I'd fired some lightening to end the fight.

In the normal course of events a Keeper simply sends anyone who he wants converted into his service to the Dark Mistresses, once broken they belong to the Keeper and he could do with them as he pleases. But in the case of my angelic wife things had been quite different.

Due to sex outside of marriage being a big no, no with Angels what with the sinning and all she'd wanted us to marry before she'd serve me. I'd knocked her out so I could have time to think it over and decided to do it after questioning the heavenly being some more. She told me that female Angels were not only subordinate to their Fathers and then later to their Husbands but were actually their property and therefore not allowed to question or disobey him.

That all seemed very odd to me but I was a product of the world were equal rights were the norm, well at least in theory. And why she'd informed me of this she couldn't say. Still I wasn't going to question the whole marriage thing when I'd get all the benefits.

While my bride would have to obey me and serve my every need as I was her Husband, she also had to be faithful for me. But that arrangement didn't work both ways because I was evil not good.

I could have sex outside of marriage, heck having a whole harem was within the rules, I didn't have to obey her or even respect her for that matter.

I did have to protect her and keep in her in the lifestyle she accustomed to. Which hadn't been that great as she was rather low down in the heaven's hierarchy, so as long as I kept her well fed, ensured there was nice room for her to stay in and gave her a few minor luxurious she was mine.

Of course her duties involved pleasing me in bed but only in the most basic of ways possible. She had a very Victorian view of sex, that whole 'lie back and think of England' view on intercourse. She would spread her legs on command but that was it, she wouldn't do anything but man on top missionary position. I could of ordered to try something else but she was unresponsive in bed so having her just lie there was the only position we could do.

This was because for her sex wasn't to be enjoyed or encouraged, it was about me slaking my lust and making babies. Which was fine for now as I liked a submissive girl in bed and siring some heirs would be a good idea . I just hoped that my concubines would be more creative in bed.

At least the wedding had been cheap, well actually it had been free. I was the highest authority so I got to officiate the marriage. I'd just declared us married and that was that.

The wedding night hadn't be that great sex wise but my wife (whose name was known to me but must never to be told to another as names had power for lots of supernatural beings which was one of the reasons why I went by Gothic rather James) had performed her other duties very well.

She prepared meals by hand, she served them formally to me and she did all the cleaning up. She'd then drawn a bath, washed me and then rubbed me down with oils which had eased a lot of tension out of my shoulders. In fact I could with a massage right now.

"Wife attend me!" I shouted.

The misses came over to me and once more I admired her body. Shoulder length blonde hair, blue eyes and a rack worth killing for. She wore a white corset like thing as a top which was open at the back in order not to hinder her snowy white wings. She also wore a white cotton skirt that was easily lifted up to expose her hairless tight cut and full round ass.

"I have I displeased you, lord?" inquired the Angel "do you wish to beat me".

My wife might not be creative in the bedroom but she had a redeeming quality. She firmly believed that I had a right to beat her for whatever reason I wished or for no reason at all. But I never hit her in anger like an abusive spouse but I did cane, strap and spank quite a bit, she seemed oddly pleased when I'd promised to punish her at least three times a day. She was an strange one my wife.

"No just rub my shoulders" I told the woman.

While the first of what I hoped would be many wives used her skilled hands to rub out some tension around me neck I took another chance to examine myself.

I'd been worried that I'd start mutating into some sort of Dragon-man thing but so far nothing reptilian was showing up on my body. I was stronger now and had muscles to show for it, although not enough to explain my strength. I'd become thinner around the belly but I didn't feel any lighter and judging by how hard I was to hurt I theorised that I hadn't most weight at all but the mass that made up by body had shifted. I was thinner but denser and also I was taller now which was nice.

All those little aches and pains in my back soon disappeared. There was nothing quite having a holy being massage you, they had healing hands for sure.

"Husband?"

The voice of wife broke the silence and I sensed from her tone of voice that she was about to make a request.

"Yes, my dear". I said sweetly in tone but without any real affection.

"May I be allowed to carry my sword again?".

I hadn't expected her to ask for her weapon to be returned so I had to think about it. I didn't think she wanted it to stab me in the back as she could of taken it out of the trophy room without me noticing. I was also pretty sure that she wasn't mentally capable of attacking me in such a way. Killing in battle is one thing but murdering someone is very different I couldn't picture her actually do something like that.

"Why do you want it?" I asked.

Her answer required no thought, and there was no attempt to deceive me.

"I am your wife first above all else but I am also a warrior. If your domain comes under attack I would like to be able to defend myself and any children I carry for you".

That was rather a good reason actually, but I was surprised by the idea that she would kill her fellow good guys.

"You would fight for me?" I questioned.

"No" she corrected "it is not my place to fight for you, but I would be able to defend myself and our children".

That was twice now she had mentioned defending any brats she bore for me. Perhaps she thought I would be more likely to grant her that favour if I knew it would be to help protect my children. She was wrong to think so, I didn't give a damn about kids that didn't even exist yet. But she had a good point about defending herself. It was doubtful that I'd be able to tame another heavenly warrior any time soon so anything that would help to keep her alive without undue to risk to myself would be a good thing.

"Very well my sweet, you can have your blade back".

That holy weapon had nearly ended my life, but that wasn't the only reason why I had kept as a trophy. Despite the blade being heaven forged I could hold it without discomfort. Which was strange because holy weapons couldn't be held evil creatures as they burned them. However I was the servant of a Dragon god not a Demon Lord or Prince so perhaps holy weapons would not be as effective on me as they would on something from Hell.

My lawfully (as I was the law around here) married wife practically ran out of the room once she had permission to go get her sword. I realised then that the real reason she wanted the weapon was because she felt defenceless without it.

If stripped of my magic I surely would feel the same. She had magic as well but those powers couldn't be used as weapons, only to defend and heal. Plus she was by her own admission of a low rank knowing only a few spells. The only reason she had been allowed to led an attack was because the Angels were spread thin back on my world and that she was a good warrior.

When she returned my side, her sword strapped to her belt, her steps seemed lighter and her mood was approaching somewhat close to happiness.

"Shall I prepare some refreshments, Master?" she inquired upon her return.

I saw no reason why not. The food and drink she was able to prepare by performing a small miracle or two, including that water to wine trick, was rather nice and my mouth was a little dry.

"Yes go do that" I told the woman.

Once she'd left I mentally summoned back the Imp who was acting as my assistant. I had a raid to plan and given my limited resources the attack on the surface would have to be carefully carried out. To lose to many of my resources now would be a disaster as more interfering champions of the light would turn sooner or later, and if they arrived after the raid before I could replenish my forces it could spell the end of me.

**Dweller Camp. The Mistpeak Mountains. Albion. **

One of the most useful spells a Keeper can call upon is the Evil Eye Spell. This handy bit of magic allows me to scout an area out before my Imps dig into it. It also works when your preparing an attack on the surface world as you can see what on the other side of the few meters of rock the Imps are about to dig threw on order to make an entrance to the world above. In this case a few feet of rock was all the separated my forces from the Dweller camp.

I'd spent some time watching the Dweller camp while my forces moved to the spots in the tunnels that almost broke to the surface. Getting my forces to these precise positions hadn't been easy. My Imps had been run ragged trying to tunnel around and below the camp site.

But it had been worth it as my forces were now exactly were they needed to be. At my signal the Imps would clear the way and my Skeletons would rush in to take the camp.

I'd given my flesh lacking minions careful instructions (and then given them again as Skeletons aren't to bright) to only kill those who fought as my creatures drove all the Dwellers to the centre of their camp. The objective of this raid was to capture people so I could gain slaves not more dead bodies.

Once herded like the cattle they were. I'd have them boxed in and demand their surrender. A display of my magical power might be needed to convince them not to offer any resistance but that should make them cower. Once they were pacified I'd have them dragged down into my Dungeon. The Imps would then clear the camp site of all its useful materials before I sealed the tunnels leading to the surface.

As plans went it was simple and direct, which was good because it meant that little could go wrong but I wasn't to just going to assume that nothing would go wrong as no plan of battle survives contact with the enemy. Then again this wasn't going to be a battle so perhaps things would go well for me.

I watched for a little while longer waiting until it looked like most of the Dwellers had gone to sleep. I then gave the order for the Imps to remove what rock remained between my Skeletons and the Dweller camp. Once that was done I separated my awareness from the Dungeon Heart and teleported to one of the tunnels leading to the surface.

It was my intention to led the attack in person just in case the Skeletons got out of control and started slaughtering everything that moved. Normally I didn't mind a little blood being shed but I needed intact people not chopped up corpses.

The Skeleton warriors lacked voice boxes yet that didn't stop them from screaming as the charged into the camp. This action woke the Dweller up as no one could sleep through the battle-cry of the undead.

To their credit the people living here were quick to muster a defence despite being caught unawares and half asleep. Gunfire soon filled the air however they were shooting at skeletons and a walking pile of bones doesn't have much to damage so most of the shoots did nothing. A few got lucky and knocked my Skeletons weapons out of their heads or sent skulls fly but for the most part their efforts were futile.

Half a dozen of the men drew close combat weapons and attacked a few of them coming right at me as if they knew the Skeletons were under my command. Admittedly that wasn't hard to figure out given my scary looking red and black dragon armour which had been a gift from the Great Serpent which had appeared in my personal chambers after the defeat of my wife's band of heroes.

The armour was magnificent, it had clearly not been made by mortal hands and the metal it had been forged from was not one know to me. The helmet was of a Dragon that was quite fearsome looking and when wearing it my vision was blocked however by some spell I could still see the world even thought the helmet had no holes to see out from. The back of the armour's chest plate had a set of Dragon's wings engraved into them. The front of the armour had two small Dragons upon it facing each other their claws meeting.

A Dweller's sword met mine, but sadly for the wielder not only was my dragon style blade vastly superior to the rusted iron sword he was using I was also a better swordsmen. I battered the rusty weapon aside and thrust my much fancier pointy bit of metal into the guy's chest.

While the point of all this was to take slaves I did need to kill those who tried to fight back as while these fighters would make better Skeletons it would be hard to move hundreds of people down into my Dungeon if some of them still had the will to fight.

A large man with an axe swiped at me with a blow that could of felled a tree by the amount of effort behind it. I only avoided the blow because the axeman misjudged the distance between us. The weapon missed me by less than an half an inch. The warrior fell forward overextended and I lashed my sword across his back staining the snow with his blood.

The third Dweller also had an axe but before he could swing it I kicked out and heard something snap. The man dropped to the ground and I decapitated him without a thought. I'd never learned to fight, or at least I'd never been trained, but this blade seemed to be doing a lot of the work for me.

Moving forward I saw that the undead were working well together considering their almost complete lack of minds. My magical control over them seemed to have improved, another sign of my growing powers perhaps.

Time seemed to have slowed for me so for a few seconds I wondered what sort of price I would have to pay for these powers. I decided to offer up a few of my captives up as a sacrifice to Dewi after this raid hopefully that would appease the Great Serpent.

The Human cattle was herded according to my plan, everything went well until an explosion scattered two of my Skeletons to the four winds. Some crazy old man was throwing bombs around and I cursed when I remembered that leader of the Dwellers liked to blow things up.

Reacting fast I sent a doombolt at him (a bolt of purple energy that killed whoever it impacted) that spell was easy to block with either a magical shield or even a physical one but the loony old man had neither and he simply dropped dead.

The crazed old loons sidekick (Baulder if I remembered right) flew into a rage upon seeing his bosses' death and he came at me intending to beat me to death with his fists not doubt. He knocked over a Skeleton and was just about to hit me when I cast another spell. Tendrils of dark energy leapt up from the ground and grabbed the brutes feet tripping him over.

Normally that spell would entangle a victim preventing them from moving at all. However my spell work wasn't that good yet so only the big guy's feet got wrapped up but that was more than enough for me to kill him.

Then a Skeleton with an axe buried his weapon into Baulder's back before I got the chance to end him myself which annoyed me enough to send the walking pile bones flying into a ditch. Doing something like that was pretty odd for me. I wasn't one to punish a minion for a reason that wasn't a good one. I had no idea why I'd done that.

I put it behind me and moved on. The Dwellers were now totally surrounded and those who had been willing to fight were dead. What was left were mostly the older Dwellers and the children but there a few women in the group and some of them looked at least a little attractive.

"Surrender or die!" I shouted out.

They looked ready to surrender.

"Kneel!" I commanded.

As a group they all got down on there knees and I enjoyed the sounds of their whimpering and tears. I was tempted to make them beg for their lives perhaps even to kill on of them in order to hear the rest scream but I resisted that urge.

Instead of instilling more terror in them I summoned the Imps and began the work of corralling my knew slaves into the Dungeons below. Down there they would be stored and most of them would end up dying slow deaths in cells while the children were sent to crèche. Most of them would be sold as slaves as well but the girls would be kept, they would be raised to serve me and once grown up (which would be years from now) the investment would pay off. The healthy females would be tortured until their spirits broke and either sold or if they were attractive enough they would become my slaves.

As other Imps started to take down the camp harvesting for useful materials I wondered if I would simply repeat this action until every Human in Albion was gone from the surface. If Bowerstone had the population of a industrial city I might have to try something else in order to claim it. I could conquer it the old fashioned way but that would require troops far smarter than my Skeletons. Perhaps I could buy a suitable a force of women that could act as guards for me.

Heading back underground I decided to look into that when I sold the slaves gathered here, but for now I had work to do. I'd have to oversee the sorting and then plan the next move. There was bandit camp in Mistpeak Valley that I wanted to attack and that raid would be a proper battle that would require proper planning.

Oh and the wife would have dinner ready by now I couldn't miss that she made lovely meals. It made up for the boring sex, well almost.


	5. Chapter 5

**Guest. **

**You don't always need super strong warriors to fight wars even when your opponents have armies of monsters. Albion has plenty of guns for the taking that don't require massive amounts of industry to create. They can just shoot the monsters or stab them with spears or use just even use bows and arrows. **

**Its also got to do with DK Gothic's Dragon nature, he wants to be surrounded by attractive things and people so that rules out most of the creatures so he's seeking out other ways to build an army. **

**Tylermech666**

**Angels getting corrupted is overdone. **

**Selias **

**As I just said corrupting an Angel in a bit overdone but forcing her to be the wife of a monster that was something else. **

**WarmasterSamiel **

**Killing gods. Well he'll need to kill the Crawler anyway not sure that thing is any sort of god or not but given that it took a Hero to take it out I'll have to have Keeper Gothic growing a bit more powerful. That or just have Gothic's Angel wife kick the Crawler's ass with her golden holy weapon that does extra damage to Demons and Cosmic Horrors but not Dragons.**

**I think the Keepers did break all the rules hence why good and evil are fighting on a world that's not suppose to have magical creatures around. The balance was broken and will remain so. **

**War Sage.**

**Thank You. **

**Dungeon Keeper Gothic. Part Five. **

**Bandit Camp. Mistpeak Valley. Albion. **

It was in the dead of night that my army struck. The Skeletons had moved with barely a sound as they marched through the thick woodlands that often helped to hide raiders as they prepared to ambush travellers.

My Skeletons gathered out the large wooden gate that for now bared their path and they waited. They didn't need to wait long.

In my Dragon form I flew down and exhaled a mighty stream of flame setting the wooden barrier alight with red hot fire. I roared with triumph as the gate burned quickly the magical fire breathed by a Dragon consumed things far faster than normal fire would and soon the fortification fell and the Skeletons charged.

I flew over the camp my dark form only visible because it blocked out the view of the stars. However while I went unseen I did not go unheard. My roar woke up the camp and roused the renegades into action.

As former soldiers they had the training and experiences needed to deal with this sort of attack and given the amount of Hollow Men around this likely wasn't the first time that they faced the undead either. This meant that the bandits did not panic (although they were afraid I could sense it) and they organised themselves quickly and prepared a defence. And while they couldn't see me they had seen my Skeletons and that gave them something to shoot at.

Guns were fired taking down more of my troops but its hard to make accurate shots at night when your target is moving so I didn't lose to many minions that way.

What did take down a lot of troops were the cannons which the bandits had quite a few of and they didn't need to aim that well given the target rich environment

However this did nothing to discourage the attack. My dead warriors cared not for losses as they not morale to break. They simple kept coming paying no minds as their fellow fleshless creatures were blown to the four winds.

Yet I knew that my army would devastated if this carried on. I could replace some of my losses with the captured Humans but it would be hard work to restock my supply Skeletons as I needed hundreds for my next attack.

So in order to win this battle and still have something of an army left I was going to have breathe some more fire. My mana levels had been greatly depleted by creating the fire that had burned the gate down but I still had enough mana left to produce some flame and it would quickly recharge once I retook Human form.

Swooping down I breathed fire on one of the cannons and set off the barrels of gunpowder that were kept next to cannons for quick reloading. The bandits manning those cannons were out right blown into little pieces.

Now the enemy was beginning to panic as it was thing to face the dead in battle but it was quite another to find yourself under attack by a massive flying fire breathing lizard that should by all writes be nothing but a myth confined to stories written for lovers of the fantasy genre.

In the confusion and panic the defending fire slackened and my creatures began to overwhelm the camp. Swords and axes did their bloody work and many of the renegades were either killed or at least greatly wounded. The ones that died in battle were the lucky ones as the Imps soon came to carry those still living to the cells were they would die slow deaths during the process that turned men into fearless Skeleton warriors.

The attack on this camp was quick and brutal (just as planned) but the destruction was not total. My bony soldiers might not be the brightest warriors around but they are able to follow simply and well explained orders. Granted they can't adapt to changing situations very well but as long as a Keeper's orders are clear they make a great fighting force.

My orders had been very clear. Kill anyone who fights and heard those who don't to the centre of the camp. It was a simple battle plan that was working well for me once more. Bandits who had run for it along with the camp hangers on (those who cooked, cleaned and maintained the weapons) were being forced into one area as the dead surrounded them.

Most of the renegades were dead as they had fought but there were at least twenty, perhaps more, now trapped. Those still able to fight had retreated further into the camp and as I came in for a landing the urge to feast upon one of them became very strong. I could smell the blood and burnt meat around me but also the fear, which was the best smell of all even if was often mixed in with the result of loss of bladder control.

Wanting to satisfy this hunger, but not wanting to eat people, I quickly killed and then ate one of the animals that made up the camp's livestock. Raw beef tasted better than it should in my oversized Dragon mouth and I quickly ate my fill.

Once I satisfied that desire I was able to transform back into my Human body. The raw meat gave me a bit of a stomach ache but that was fixed with a healing spell. Still I had to wonder how my Human stomach coped as not only was the meat raw but also given the sheer amount of meat I'd consumed, that cow had been a big one, there shouldn't be enough room inside me to hold the food.

I put those thoughts aside for later and began moving towards the camp's barracks. After kicking a door down I discovered three women huddled together in the corner. When they saw me they stood up and tried not to look scared. Which got easier when I took my helmet off.

"Who are you then?" asked the oldest of what I assumed were three sisters.

Before answering I got closer and examined them. All three were teenagers I guessed (which was a word unknown on this world as people with shorter lives tend to be considered adults at thirteen and are often married with a kid at fourteen) and must be sisters as they looked so alike.

They were dressed in peasant clothing that suggested they weren't Dwellers but local to the Brightwall region. Most likely farmers as they didn't look like townsfolk who tended to wear shoes.

"I am Keeper Gothic the Red Dragon and servant of the Great Serpent Dewi".

This would mean nothing to them but it did sound impressive.

"Oh aye" replied the middle sister "you do look like you live in a Dungeon your all pale".

Not quite the reaction I was hoping for. Normally people cower in fear or beg for mercy they don't comment on my aversion to sunbathing.

"Are you gonna ravish us?" asked the youngest "we've been ere two days and not one of these blokes as laid a finger on us.

(Author Note: I can't write accents so I'll stop. Imagine they sound like country girls)

I couldn't help but notice that this question was accompanied with dread, if anything she sounded hopeful.

"Judging by the racket he's making I don't think any of them will be ravaging us" remarked the middle sister in a tone of voice that suggested disappointment "he's gone and killed them all. He'll send us home bloody Heroes no sense of romance".

I would of thought the scary Dragon armour I was wearing would make it clear that I wasn't a nice man.

"No, no I'll ravish you" I assured feeling as if my masculinity was somehow being offended "and then I'll drag you back to my fortress were you will be sex slaves".

Oddly they seemed to like this idea. Their lives at home must be very dull.

"But first I have to slaughter my enemies and take prisoners" I told the girls "why don't you stay here and get ready while I deal with that".

It would have been more practical to ravish them with their enthusiastic consent back in my Dungeon but it was sort of traditional to pillage, rape and burn. Granted I hadn't done the rape part but consenting sex toys are more fun, they don't kick and scream as much and there were three of them so why wait for that level of fun?. Come to think of it I'd burned before pillaging but there was no reason why I couldn't kill and loot before setting more fires.

I ordered two Skeletons to guard the door but not to kill anyone inside the hut and then went to deal with the remaining bandits.

I'd learned from my Dweller captives that the Hero (who was the Princess here and not a Prince ,much to my surprise) had already visited the Dweller camp and promised to bring back a great treasure in order to prove that it was worth while for the Dwellers to ally with the rebel Princess.

Also given that the Hero Princess hadn't yet dealt with this camp (and now couldn't) I assumed therefore that she was still in Brightwall. My plan was to capture her here when she did get around to dealing with the Bandits or to siege the town Brightwall in order to get her, in fact I'd conquer the town anyway but the Princess was a higher priority.

I'd attacked this camp in hopes of setting up a trap but now it looked as if that wouldn't be necessary as I'd found the Princess. I wondered why I hadn't seen the leader of this gang so far and I found out it was because her Highness was keeping him busy by beating the shit out of him.

I realised that she must have been able to sneak past the the Bandits far more successfully than her male counterpart had when I'd been playing that game. And that my attack must have been very quick indeed considering that the boss fight wasn't over yet. It also explained why so few bandits had been fighting my Skeletons. This camp could easily hold over a hundred of the crooks, if some of them didn't mind sleeping rough (and judging by the amount sleeping bags and fires they were) but I hadn't see half that many so far.

This bit of luck pleased me greatly as it meant I could kill to birds with one stone. I could kill the gang's leader and capture the Princess all in one move.

Moving quickly I threw myself into the fight. The Princess was at the point when she has to decide if she was going to spare the leader or not. I was rather shocked when she ran him through but I didn't let that stop me from hitting her in the back with a spell that drained life. I had to knock her out quickly because otherwise she would just disappear off to the Sanctuary.

The spell worked well, mostly because the girl wasn't in great shape at the end of fight anyway, but also because she wasn't a very powerful Hero yet. Things went less well for me after that. A dozen or so bandits got rather annoyed that I had interrupted their fight. How they hadn't noticed that half their camp was in flames I had no idea but they were paying attention now and they weren't happy about it. They decided to place the blame on me 'which they were right to' and no doubted to kill me.

Holding my Dragon forged blade with one hand I used it to cut down one thug while shooting lighting from my other which struck another of my enemies.

Two dead in two seconds but the rest kept coming and one of the buggers hit me with an axe hitting me so hard I'd bruise for sure.

Rage filled me and triggered the transformation without me wishing it to but I resisted the change and fought as a man rather than a beast as it wouldn't do for me to transform and then crush my prize or burn her while dealing with these fools.

I span on the spot my blade slicing into flesh and killing another. One of the crooks tried to jump on my back but I just grabbed him with my free hand and threw over my shoulder. Another tried to stab me with a knife but my armour was very tough and the blade didn't meet my flesh.

Next I threw a fireball at a bandit with one of their fire bombs the explosive blew up in his hand which was not a pretty sight even if it was funny a little funny. The bomb thrower was set on fire and burned alive before my eyes and he didn't die quietly.

My blade met a rusty old axe and my sword broke the mistreated weapon. The warrior barely had time to realise that I had broken his weapon before my sword cut across his chest leaving an angry red hot wound.

Then their morale broke. Those still alive turned and ran as they simply weren't up to fighting two super human warriors in a row and I let them flee as they would run right into my Skeletons who would either kill them or herd them along with the rest of the cattle.

I then mentally commanded the two strongest Imps to come to me the urge filled them and they appeared in little puffs of smoke that smelled a little of sulphur.

"Take the girl to the cells" I commanded "tell the Dark Mistresses that she is to be converted at once".

They didn't reply they simply did as they were told. I knew that the Princess would stay put in the cells. The Dungeons were warded to prevent any sort of magical transportation by those who didn't serve the Keeper, which was important as many high level light magic creatures and heroes could teleport.

The Dark Mistresses would torture the young royal until she was mine and I'd then have a second wife (although this could take some time as Fable Heroes are tough to break only the fact that she was inexperienced would it make possible at all) and with those three sisters I'd have a nice harem as well.

I decided then to go back to the three farm girls and 'ravish' them while my Imps and Skeletons marched the other survivors of this attack off to their doom.

**Drenghul's Dungeon. The Slave Market. Beneath The Atlantic Ocean. **

As ever the slave market was a hive of activity as Keepers brought and sold lives that were theirs to spend.

I had come to join in with that business as after two raids on Albion I had more slaves than I knew what to do with.

I'd sorted out those that I wished to keep and those that were even now still undergoing the process that would turn them into Skeletons because they were to old or weak for anything else. The rest were being sold here, they were mostly adult males and children those I had no use for and no desire to kill if it didn't profit me.

Senseless slaughter would not serve me or my patron deity so selling the spoils of my war off to other Keepers was a smart move. And to my surprise I got a better price for them than I would have expected. Humans weren't exactly rare on Earth so I'd of never of have imagined their would be a shortage.

As it was explained to me by the slave traders people on the surface were becoming harder to capture because those stupid and slow enough to be easily caught had long since been enslaved or in some cases just killed. The survivors of those days had adapted to the point were they could not only find ways to hide but they were also fighting back.

Despite the Humans being harder to catch the slave trade wasn't letting up in the least. There were still a few billion people on the world above after all and there hiding just meant that the demand was higher. And because of this my slaves sold well.

Blame for this change in the state of Keeper economic affairs was cast upon the light magic creatures and heroes that had entered this world. They weren't just attacking Keepers they were helping the people on the surface to survive the new world and according to some Earth Humans were actually starting to fight alongside the Forces of Good.

However I wasn't to worried about that. Neither side was going to wipe the other out not with the sheer amount of forces each side had. This kind of war would wear both sides out until the will to fight was lost, and they would give up. At some point the fighting would start again but that was a problem for the future.

In fact if anything the Keepers were more likely to wipe each other out than be exterminated by the light magic users. But that might not happen either as new Keepers were still being created as older Keepers died or were driven from this world.

Walking around I gripped the bag of jewels in my hand tightly. The profits from both the sale of slaves as well the rest of the loot from that raid like magic potions and weapons which were always in high demand as the Trolls couldn't produce weapons fast enough for the consent fighting going on.

Gem stones were used a currency between Keepers because unlike gold, and other metals, there was no spell to create things like emeralds, diamonds and rubies. They were also small and light enough in weight to easily carry around which was another good reason to use them as money.

Many of the Keepers here selling their wares knew magic that they would never share with the likes of me. By some process they could alter people so that their bodies were more pleasing in shape, which explained the lack of small breasted women around here.

But they didn't stop at such simple alterations some of the Keepers had gone as far as to make things like cat girls and fox ladies. A lot of these altered women had to much animal in them for my tastes but not all of them. There was one girl with breasts that defied gravity and the ears and tail of a rabbit I found that form rather amusing but she wasn't worth the asking price.

In this part of the slave market the products weren't chained up or otherwise bound for the most part. Which was unsurprising given that the altered Humans had minds that only thought thoughts of pleasing their owners.

But there were lots of cages for transporting them although I didn't know how that worked as Keepers weren't that strong, in my Dragon form I could move them but I wouldn't fit down the passage that led to this Dungeon's Heart when that size. Then I remember that were spells to lighten great weights and such spells could be used in enchantments.

Beyond the cages was another part of the marketplace. Here the women for sale were meant for fighting. They wore very impractical armour (and sometimes nothing but Celtic war paint which did actually offer some protection since the Celtic gods were active again) but their weapons looked quite deadly. However despite their equipment they didn't really seem to be warriors.

"There gladiators" explained the Keeper who was selling the dangerous looking women.

This Keeper was what was called a Lesser Keeper, they were creatures or people that had been elevated to position of Keeper by a more powerful Keeper who needed one of his Dungeons managed when he wasn't around.

I'd been planning to turn my Drow whore into one of these Lesser Keepers so that she could manage my Dungeon here on Earth but she'd died before I could get around to binding her to a Heart.

"What are they for?" I asked while pointing at the warrior women "to help train creatures".

The Lesser shook his head which looked rather odd given that his helmet had antlers attached.

"No they entertain" he replied "Greater Keepers such as yourself pitch them against the gladiators of other Keepers for amusement".

Now I understood.

"Like the Romans".

The antler wearing Lesser nodded.

"My lord, the Keeper Warmaster Samiel".

(Author Note: I suck at names so some of you reviewers get to be Keepers. Hope you don't mind and perhaps you'd like to write a short story for your own Keeper I wouldn't mind adding some side stories to my work).

"greatly enjoys watching his gladiators fight and die in his main Dungeon's Coliseum, he also enjoys betting on the outcomes".

I could build such a place myself but I hadn't bothered as liked to keep my warriors alive. Only the most powerful of my creatures used the more lethal training rooms and even then I limited the amount of time they spent in them.

But now that I had a Fable Hero perhaps I could get in on these gladiator fights. Few could beat a Fable Hero in a fair fight and those things that could didn't tend to be female or remotely Human for that matter. Granted there were some but I doubted they would be allowed to fight in an arena as there would be no sport in it. Of course a Fable Hero is pretty powerful so I'd have to ensure that she would allowed to fight before entering her in any contests.

Also if bets were made I could acquire more wealth and power by having the Princess kill for me in entertaining ways. She'd need training first but I had expendable Skeletons for that and I could always sacrifice a few of my living warriors if needs be.

"Do any of these arena fights take place in this Dungeon?" I inquired.

This Dungeon was truly massive in size so it wouldn't surprise if there were gladiator fights here that had thousands of people watching them on a regular basis.

"Yes Lord Keeper there is at least one each week, but the truly spectacular fights take place at the end of each month "

The end of the month was only a week away so my pet Princess might not be ready by then. I'd have to devote quite a bit of time to the training her if I was to met that deadline but that wouldn't be timed wasted as my own battle skills needed refining as well as did those of my warriors.

I had planned to have the Princess led my armies of sexy girls in battle as with her powers she'd be able to take on small armies by herself. For now I was just using Skeletons but they weren't really suited for complex warfare so once I got my all female warriors they'd be used as guards and cannon fodder.

Of course sending in a bunch of attractive young ladies into battle wasn't a very good idea unless you had ways to make them good fighters but I did. The magic of the training rooms allowed anyone to become decent soldier as long as they had time to train and the Keeper kept some decent weapons around for them to use.

That was one of the reasons I'd gone to Albion was that they had guns there that didn't require you to raid heavily defended military bases in order to obtain. Modern day weapons weren't that suitable for Keeper's armies as even if you did get the guns you then had to provide your troops with ammo which wasn't easy to make without heavily automated factories. And you'd also need somebody to train your army to use those weapons as the training rooms only taught hand to hand and magical combat.

Plus I'd have a hard time finding weapons to loot as the Keepers that had been active before me had already gotten there hands on guns and unlike in other countries guns aren't that common in Britain so it wasn't as if I'd be able to find them in people's homes in or displayed in a shop.

However the more primitive rifles and pistols used in Fable were not only easy to find they also fired ammo that was much easier to make, and the industry required to produce and maintain these weapons was already set up. All I had to do was seize it and they weren't defended by soldiers who had rocket launchers and tanks.

I looked over the gladiators being sold once again. I'd need at least one in order to have her teach others how to fight the way she did. The problem was that these examples of arena fighters were all rather expensive given that they rather good at what they did. But I needed cheap so I'd have to settle for a gladiator who was at least competent.

"Do you have any more expendable fighters" I asked the Lesser "Ones more suited to training others than fighting themselves".

He told me that he did and then paraded a few gladiators before me. One of them caught my eye. She was a very large breasted woman whose skin colour suggested that her ancestors weren't European as my mine were. This wasn't what drew my interest, ethnicity means nothing to me as all Humans are beneath me anyway but she had an exotic quality about that suggested that she hadn't been born on the the world same as I had been. I couldn't place her origins at all although if I had to guess wherever it was she came from was hot but not say Africa hot.

She wore nothing but a metal band around her waist that held to strips of cloth that covered her ass and pussy. Her weapons were two oddly shaped blades that I couldn't place the origin of either. She looked deadly but she was no mindless savage. She was a warrior of speed and agility rather than brute force if I was any judge.

"I'll take her if she's good at fighting" I told the merchant "what is her name".

"No idea" replied the seller of slaves "she's mute and they normally have titles anyway you can give her one. She's a decent fighter but isn't powerful enough for the big time fights".

I wouldn't bother to name I never cared for names. I suppose the Dragon in me didn't see mortals as being worthy of naming and powerful beings like me never gave out their actual names as names had power for many magical creatures. Which is why all the important Dungeon Keepers had titles like Warmaster or in my case The Red Dragon. Titles had power as well as long they were earned or at least people thought they were well earned but unlike names they didn't tend to give people over you.

A weight of gems was exchanged for my new slave and I had her collared with a chain to show that she was now owned by me. I'd have her branded later to cermet my ownership.

I noticed that unlike most of the females being brought or sold here this gladiator didn't try to avoid eye contact. Instead she scanned the room as if looking for threats. Which wasn't odd behaviour for someone who fought battles to the death on a regular bases. Its the attacks you don't see coming that are often the ones that kill you.

With my new slave in tow I headed out of the slave market and back to my Dungeon. I had meeting with Keeper Black later today and I didn't want to offend my ally by showing up late.

**Throne Room. Keeper Black's Dungeon. Beneath Manchester. **

The throne room of Keeper Black was rather impressive to look at if you happen to like skulls, chained up naked girls, yet more skulls and the odd statue of the Dungeon's Keeper that showed him or her in his or her favourite armour and while holding his or hers favourite weapon(s). And as I did happen to like those things so I was rather impressed the decorations.

Sitting on this throne (which was made up of three huge stones carved into the shape of skulls with a chair) was my ally Keeper Black who ruled many Dungeons all over England and Wales having conquered them thanks to being part of the North-Western Alliance which connected Keepers from the USA to Keepers in the UK via Drenghul's Dungeons which seemed to be spread out below the seabed of the Atlantic.

Which made my holdings of Wales' capitol city and a mountain range in Albion seem rather pitiful really.

My host had ensured that I was made welcome with refreshments served by a Nightelf who once I had my drink spent the rest of her time kneeling at my feet in case I wanted something else. Now normally having an attractive female on her knees before is a good thing its like awkward when your in a meeting so I did best to ignore her.

"So, Gothic what have you been up to?" asked Black.

"Well lets see, since we last met I have defeated and destroyed another Keeper. Then that Keeper's patron god inflicted all my forces with a plague which left me with only my Imps and a few Skeletons. I then moved my operations to Albion built a new Dungeon and gone on to were I wipe out or enslaved the population of a few settlements".

Actually only two but but I wanted to make it sound as if I had done more. I also purposely didn't mention that I was serving a Dragon god because while Keeper makes allies they don't make friends and you never tell your allies everything.

"And got nice armour as well" said Black.

I was wearing my Dragon armour because like any Keeper who wanted to survive more than a few hours after starting their new career I didn't trust my fellow Keepers any more than they trusted me. So I'd never enter another Keeper's Dungeon without some sort of protection.

"Yes" I replied.

That seemed to be the end of the social pleasantries for now. Now it was time to get on with the business of being Keepers.

"As you know attacks by those light magic creatures and their hero allies are on the increase" said Keeper Black.

I had not only noticed I myself had been attacked and gotten a wife out of the arrangement so all in all these good guy attacks were a bad thing in my opinion.

"Most of the really powerful light creatures are focusing their efforts on the most powerful and least subtle of the Keepers, which is paving the way for new Keepers and creating an opportunity for us".

He'd mentioned something about this before about how the balance of power was shifting. The Alliance we were part of favoured the American Keepers as there were a lot more of them and they'd been active the longest. Well that and they also had the most spells and a wider range of creatures which made it made it worth while sucking up to them.

But now things were changing. The American side of the Alliance was weakening due to hero attacks, infighting and the Humans on the surface who had adapted to the new world order and had not only started surviving but also fighting back.

Here in the UK things were different. The island nation of my birth was more isolated due to surrounded by water and while they natives of the lands above had gotten better at hiding they weren't fighting back as well as they should be. They lack the numbers and the will to fight.

I suspected that mystical diseases were behind this lack of will to fight. My own encounter with the Veiled Goddess's weapon of choice had devastated my Dungeon so if she's inflicted the Humans above which plagues it would explain not the lack of people I'd found but also why I'd never come under attack from whatever reminded of Britain's fighting forces. Although it did raise the question of where all the bodies were.

"If I remember right you were planning to build your own faction or something like that".

The Keeper nodded.

"An alliance of my own made up of the Keepers which have risen to power here rather than Keepers that are spread across the half world and who can't even support each other when under attack".

That was an ambitious plan and it was perhaps even a foolish one given the that Horror that ruled over the Alliance, but I was in no fit state to judge. I was planning to conquer Albion and use its people and resources as a stepping stone to becoming ruler of the entire of Wales and perhaps more.

Granted my home land was a small unimportant country when compared to others but it was going to be mine. The Dragon in me wouldn't settle for anything less, but beyond ruling my nation of birth I didn't have real desire to conquer more.

Dragons are territorial creatures but are quite happy to allow others to rule elsewhere as long as they don't bother the neighbours. And that was a good arrangement for me as well.

In fact even with my Dragon side I didn't even mind dividing up the land they own with underlings as long as they remember who is the boss, and if they don't well its their funeral assuming anyone bother to arrange a funeral as I certainly wouldn't.

Dragons also tend to like mountains which would explain why I was building my massive Dungeon inside the Mistpeak Mountains and already I was thinking about what I could do with Mount. Snowdon once I got my hands on it.

But while I had the desire to rule that much and maybe even more one day the wills of others would get in the way.

For starters Black wouldn't simply give up his holdings in Wales, he needed the materials and creatures those Dungeons provided in order to not only create his own Alliance but also to defend his Dungeons that were far more spread out than mine were and therefore more vulnerable to attack.

"So you want my help in organising this new alliance" I said.

Black leaned forward on his throne his more normally relaxed demeanour was gone and I could see the lust for power in his eyes.

"I want you recruit as many of these new Keepers as you can find. If they say no destroy or enslave them, if they agree to join us bring them before me".

Until now I'd not really sought out other Keepers in order to do battle as I hadn't needed to because they tended to attack me, well accept for Carl but he'd been weak and would have been crushed by another Keeper early on if I hadn't gotten there first.

Going after Keepers was more dangerous as it would mean spreading what forces I had over a larger area making it harder to defend myself. I didn't really even have that many troops so I couldn't really afford to do what he asked me to do.

Well not unless I opened my Dungeon to creatures and started training and equipping them as best I could. Even then I'd have to do most of the work myself and spend a lot of time in my Dragon form. As until Albion was mine and its resources were supporting my war machine I wouldn't have the means to wage war on my fellow Keepers. So if I was going to risk dividing my efforts by fighting on two worlds I wanted to know if it was worth it.

"And what would be in it for me?" I asked to know.

The Keeper on his throne was rather shocked that I'd questioned what should really be obvious.

"You'd be my top lieutenant, second only to me. You'd have more Dungeons than you could know what to do with. Hundreds of Lesser Keepers and their creatures would at your command and they would all pay tribute to you. What more could possibly you want?".

I had an answer for that.

"What I want is the power to shape people"

Black again seemed shocked but only for a moment.

"Is that all" he remarked before turning to one of the slaves who had been standing in shadows. "Get me the books on alterations and the one on rituals".

I guessed that he had put aside some reading material for me in advance and that was confirmed when he said.

"There are rituals one can perform to appease the Dark Gods as group, one of those rituals grants any creature or person branded with your mark immunity to a single god's curse. That protection can only be withdrawn if you offend the entire pantheon".

Since I didn't want it known that was I was the champion of the Great Serpent I didn't mention that I had dedicated myself to serving one deity. But given that Dewi had already promised me protection I didn't need to worry about such things. Still there might be rituals and sacrifices I could make to my patron god that would benefit me in some way. Dewi had been very generous so far gifting me with a set of armour and a blade but perhaps I could get more.

The books were given to me by another Elf (this one a Blood-elf) and I checked the alterations books over. It was about far more than making women look more attractive and giving them optional extras such as cats ears.

It was actually about altering matter of living thing not just changing how people looked. With this sort of power you weren't limited to the few spells that could create living things you could reshape life to suit your whims.

There were limits of course, there always are, you could give a person (Human or otherwise) animal features making them part animal but you couldn't transform an animal into a person by giving them Human parts.

A Keeper also couldn't add to the mass of the living creature (although it could be subtracted making it a great dieting aid) it was modifying but you could move the mass around, so if you wanted a woman to have huge breasts you'd have to add mass to her body which could be done by simply having the female you want to modify eat a big meal.

Of course you had to very careful about what you modified because you didn't want your bunnygirls to have a rabbit's hearing and while a tail could be cute it wasn't so cute if you gave them an internal organ that should be a rabbit. So a Keeper using this magic had to carefully picture exactly what it was he wanted to modify or add.

But I wasn't planning on anything so extreme. I just wanted all my slaves to be attractive girls who fitted in better with all treasure and art I planned to fill my Dungeon with. Like a Dragon I liked hoarding gold, and other shiny, things but at least I didn't feel the need to sleep on a pile of costly metal, that would very uncomfortable and expensive.

Getting back to the issue at hand. I told Black that I would aid him by doing as he wished but after I had rebuilt my army. Which he agreed to this which was a deal that favoured me as I would be the one to decide at what point my army was rebuilt.

We then went on to plan how I would go about bringing other Keepers under my control. It wasn't as simple as just having my Imps tunnel about until another Keeper was found. That could actually be quite dangerous as there were things like natural gas despots underground that could explode or poison the air. There was also the risk of tunnelling into bodies of water and flooding your Dungeon.

The best way to find other Keepers quickly was to have the Imps tunnel towards the cities and towns that Humans had lived in until the evacuations. Many people still in fact did still live in those settlements but they had gotten good at hiding and I couldn't be bothered to go find them since slaves were easier to acquire in Albion.

Using the Evil Eye Spell a Keeper could scout the areas the Imps were tunnelling into and prevent mishaps and also locate other Keepers.

One a Keeper was found I would spy on them in order to find out how strong they were. If they looked weak I would crush them if they looked strong I would invite them into the alliance Black was building. If they refused then Black and his allies would move in to destroy that Keeper.

This plan was not without its risk. I could end being destroyed by the very Keepers I sought out but as long as I prepared myself and kept growing stronger I should be able to handle them.

Of course I didn't intend to actually do the prep work myself, but I didn't have to nor did I wish to given that this task would involve having to gather an army of creatures and then train them. That chore could be given to a Lesser Keeper. Then when it came time to led that army in conquests I'd do my part.

Perhaps by then I'd have my army of sexy girls but it was doubtful that I'd be able to build that army any time soon. If the army I wanted to create was ready by then I could use the army raised by the Lesser as training tools in the arena I planned to build on both worlds I had Dungeons in.

But I'd have to find someone worthy of being a Lesser Keeper. My Angel wife wasn't suited to the task and I had other plans for the Princess. Seeking advice I asked Black if he had an ideas and he offered me the services of one of his aids who were all suitable for the task given they assisted Black in running his domain.

The aids were lined up in front of me and for a moment I hoped that one of them was a Drow female but she turned out to be a blonde women who'd been modified to look like a Drow. Actual Drow were rare given that they weren't a populace species due to all the warfare and the backstabbing. Bit like Keepers in that respect.

After thinking it through I decided to go with the Human girl who had the look of a Goth about her and a number of piercings on her body. She wasn't that attractive more average in looks which meant Black might not have shagged her given that he had many hot babes around here and by the look in her eyes she was a sharp one uni student if I was any judge.

"I'll take her" I told Black.

"She's smart but mouthy" he informed "you might need to beat her a bit".

Given her reaction to that statement I might not need to lay a finger on her. She would have known the torments a Keeper could offer after her time spent with the Dark Mistresses so she be no stranger to pain, but most Humans gave in quickly when at the mercy of a Dark Mistress so she only be able to guess what a Keeper could do. She looked smart to try and avoid a beating at my hands.

"As long as she manage the creation of an army I don't care she mouths off a little" I replied.

I really didn't care. Humans talking was like the bleating of sheep to me these days unless it involved stroking my ego. And since I had slaves who spoke only to flatter my ego and they were skilled at it I didn't need a Lesser doing it too.

"She can manage that" assured Black "and she'll do a lot more if she knows what's good for her".

Not for the first time today I wondered what had happened to this Keeper. When I had first met him he had seemed to be more fun loving and content with his position. Now he seemed more ambitious and somewhat cruel. Not that I was in any way fit to judge.

"I'll take my leave of you then" I told my ally "I best get started as soon as possible".

I was escorted to the Heart and from there I transported myself and my new minion back to my Dungeon in South Wales.

**Personal Chambers. Gothic's Dungeon. Below Cardiff. **

Before the plague had come this part of my first Dungeon had been not just home to me but also my Harem who had existed for sole purpose of satisfying my needs and fulfilling my desires. Now it was a cold lonely place with only one other person in it aside from myself.

"You will need a title" I told the Goth girl who would soon be a Lesser Keeper in my service "forget the name your parents gave you and chose another and a title to go with it. Servant of the Red Dragon would be best".

"I kinda like Belladonna" she said trying not to stutter.

That would be appropriate as I was Gothic the Red Dragon Servant of the Great Serpent Dewi she would Belladonna Servant of the Red Dragon. Belladonna wasn't the most original thing she could of called herself but it was better than whatever name her mother and father had forced upon her when she was mewling infant.

"Strip naked" I ordered with all the casualness of one ordering a drink at a bar.

To Belladonna's credit she didn't hesitate long. She quickly removed the ragged outfit she been wearing which was standard clothing for a slave only hers had been clean and only slightly worn as she was an assistant not just a common labourer.

"Burn it" I commanded.

With one arm covering her private region she threw the clothing into the fire and tired to cover herself for modesties sake. This wasn't something I cared for.

"Hands behind your head and stand up straight with your legs apart".

She almost disobeyed and a protest was about to leave her lips when she made eye contact with me. My eyes still looked Human but there was no real Humanity in them they were cold ice blue now.

Upon breaking eye contact she did as she was told and I started to walk around inspecting my new minion as if she a thing I was planning on buying rather than a person. I was humiliating her like this not just because I liked to do such things but because I wanted to make it clear that I was the boss around here and that I wasn't going to the nice kind of boss.

I inspected her body and found it mostly pleasing. The piercings of the nipples and the clit were attractive as was the shaved pussy. There was room for improvement, her ass was a little to small for my tastes and her hips were a little to wide but my new knowledge that was easy enough to sort out.

Grabbing her hips I visualised the changes I wanted to make and felt my mana go to work. Her bottom grew her hips got smaller. I also increased her bra size to the point that she'd great terrible back ache if it were for the fact that Lesser Keepers can use healing spells.

Belladonna whimpered and sobbed but not because he minded my improvements but because the process was unpleasant. She cried as the discomfort became pain but I was unmoved by her tears and kept reshaping her form until I was pleased with my work. I didn't stop until her form was in my mind perfect which had involved colouring her hair permanently purple.

I even went as far as making her ears a bit smaller and her lips a little fuller. About the only thing that I didn't change were her brown eyes that were quite an attractive feature.

Using this power had been taxing both mentally and magically but it had been rather easy to alter her in such a way it hadn't much time at all I knew that I could do more. But for now this would do.

I stood back and admired the body I had shaped and was pleased with what I had done. Once Belladonna had calmed down even she seemed happy with the alterations. And why shouldn't she be? I'd transformed her from a lowly slave whose life was of no consequence into a Keeper who would rule a small kingdom in my name. Or at least she would be once I bound her this Dungeon's Heart.

But before I would bestow her with the power and privilege that was a Keeper's due I had to make sure that she understood the hierarchy around here. It wasn't a complex system as long as one remembered that I was in charge and everything in my domain existed to serve in the roles I chose for them. Still it was important to ensure that she remembered this and what better way to do that than to make her kneel before me.

"On your knees" I ordered.

My soon to be Lesser Keeper got down on her knees and the sight of a naked woman kneeling before in complete submission aroused me.

Having changed my outfit after leaving the meeting it was simple enough to get my erect cock out. Belladonna didn't need three guesses to figure out what my next order would be but she didn't get the chance to obey as I roughly shoved my dick into her mouth by grabbing her hair.

What happened next wasn't so much me getting a blowjob as it was me fucking her face. I was simply using her as a source of sexual release and as a way of satisfying my more perverted desires. My wife was boring in bed and I hadn't gotten a Harem together as of yet (the three sisters I'd captured didn't count as they were still being tortured by the Dark Mistresses) so this poor bitch was being used as a means to indulge myself in the pleasures I'd been denied. That this act also made very sure that she knew exactly who was in charge around here was just an added bonus.

Belladonna tried not to choke or to slobber like an animal but her efforts were in vain. Her attempt to use her hands in order to gain some control of this activity was met with me pulling her hair harder. She soon got the message and started breathing through her nose while trying to suck my cock hoping that I'd cum just that bit sooner.

It worked rather well and after pounding her face for what was for me not long enough I was soon cumming down her throat forcing her to swallow my seed not caring that her face was turning red. For a moment I thought she might pass out but she recovered fast and hardly gagged at all.

As she picked herself up I looked her over again and wondered how far I could take the alterations. She wasn't that skinny and didn't mind losing a bit on the bum and boobs I could give her a feature that would set her apart from the other slaves. A nice pair of horns perhaps or a demonic looking tail.

In fact why stop there. I could force feed her a large meal and then make her look a Demon. As long as I could visualise what I wanted it should be possible. Heck I might even be able to give her wings although she'd need a spell or enchantment to actually fly.

Deciding that it was time to bind her to her Heart I ordered her to follow me and like a good dog she did. She'd obey me now just to avoid being abused like that. Humiliation was more effective than pain as the memories of being humiliated last quite a long time. Once bound betrayal wouldn't be a concern as the binding wouldn't allow it so she'd have no choice but to obey or be broken again.

The ritual to bound a mortal creature to a Heart isn't complex and it was over quickly. I'd gifted Belladonna with immortality and great magical powers although it would take her a while to understand how great a gift this was.

Granted that was partly due to me filling her head with the information download I'd once gotten, but once the pain faded she understand.

"I have plans to modify you further" I told the new Keeper "So I want you to put on some weight. If you don't I'll have you replaced".

I didn't actually have to say but she got the hint that retirement wasn't an option here. She'd be replaced over her dead body quite literally.

I'd wait a few days before altering her body into something demonic looking but still sexy. I'd need to practice a bit before trying something that and I had far expendable test subjects that the Lesser.

"Yes, master" she replied.

If she couldn't arrange her own food then she wasn't worth keeping, she'd get no help from me. I was just planning to give her some instructions before heading to Albion.

"You'll figure things out" I told her "build me an army and make sure there well trained. I'll be back to check on you in a couple of days. If I am not pleased by your process I will beat you to death".

I threatened her so calmly that it sounded terrifying. In fact it wasn't even really a threat, it was more like a statement like saying that the sun will rise tomorrow. Yet I managed to make her cringe in terror. I rather enjoyed being able to do that.

Without another world I headed to the portal and went home. Even Keepers need their sleep and the wife would be cooking something heavenly. And I had worked up somewhat of an appetite.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author Note:**

**I'm doing shorter chapters from now on as ten thousand words is a bit much for me these days. About five thousand words per chapter should be fine as I can write more complete chapters if I don't have to keep switching scenes. **

**So you want to be an Author. **

**Corrupting Angels as been overdone in fiction. Having her actually stay uncorrupted is more novel in my mind. Plus she's only one of many wives he's going to have so I can't spend to much time on her. **

**Kyren**

**Vexmaster's work is awesome. **

**Well its hard for me to put that sort of thing into words. Like most people I live on the surface of a world so while I can wrap my head around buildings going up having construction going down as well tends to be hard to picture. Plus it is easier to build new rooms on the same level as old ones as then the Keeper doesn't have to worry about his creatures spending all their time trying to get from level to the other. **

**When defending a Dungeon a Keeper's army has to be able to move on mass to the point where the Dungeon was breached so again having most of the Dungeon level helps there as can you imagine having to move an army up 2km to face an invading army. Down is easy enough but you can't have an army running up the stairs to go fight they'd be knackered afterwards. **

**Why doesn't the create gold spell make sense? **

**I'm sure I mentioned that DK Gothic could make simple metals. Steel is an alloy not an element it would require DK Gothic to create two separate materials and then fuse them together using one spell. He just doesn't know how to do that the Spell for it hasn't been made. Besides then what would the Trolls do for work? **

**DK Gothic is still human he's not a pure dragon so while he does crave beauty he craves what humans see as beauty not just what a dragon would. Stuff like having lots of gold and jewels around works for both species but humans tend to like art work and attractive women they don't tend to find big ass monsters as good decorations. **

**Balverines could work I might add them in later. **

**Worsfold15.**

**Thank you. **

**jabbarulez **

**Might try that later. He was just experimenting in the last chapter. **

**Guest.**

**Indeed it could bit him in the ass but don't forget he still has his skeletons and he can keep buying warriors for his army. **

**Other Guest. **

**That should be fixed now. **

**Selias. **

**The fallout from Black is up to won't matter much in the end. The Alliance Gothic is part of is very big one member losing his mind is a bother buts it not a disaster. **

**WarmasterSamiel.**

**This chapter is about your character. Hope you like him I made him very bad ass. **

**Gourmetix313**

**That should be fixed now let me know if it isn't. **

**Dungeon Keeper Gothic. Part Six.**

**The Arena. Warmaster Samiel's Arena Dungeon. Iceland. **

Swords met and filled the air with the sound of clanging steel as two gladiators traded blows in the arena below. Each of the battling warriors sought to wound, but not to kill, the other as this was a training match rather than a contest of the more lethal nature. These sought of bouts were merely the warm up to the sport that come later. Still the display of skill was an impressive one and I had to stop myself from sitting on the edge of the throne that had been provided for me while viewing the fights from the VIP box.

My angelic wife looking both wonderful and deadly in her stylish white and gold armour was one of the two combatants below. Her golden blade (which was imbued with holy power and quite able to kill Keepers even if their Dungeon Heart was intact) was a blur of motion as she fought two handed against a savage Viking warrior of some sort whose axe and shield technique was serving him well.

Yet despite the Viking's skill and ferocity he was doomed to defeat. He was tapping into the legendary berserker rage of the Vikings. This normally would of turned the warrior into an unstoppable juggernaut of destruction, at least in a fight between mortals, but such levels of rage could not be sustained for long he would exhaust him quickly and then my Angel would win the match. The victory wasn't long in coming as the axe wielder began to slow down and his blows became more sluggish.

A roar of pain then echoed off the walls of the arena as my first wife disarmed her foe and then stabbed him in the foot which sent the Viking warrior to the ground were his blood began to mix with the dirt covered floor.

"Weak" snarled the Warmaster "a pitiful excuse for a einherjar. The Valkyries should never have let that one enter Valhalla's halls!".

I turned my eye to Samiel and once more took in the sight of the Keeper who ruled the entire of Iceland. He was a massive figure clad in dark coloured steel armour and white furs which covered his entire body. His helmeted head decorated with the horns of some great beast shielded his face so only by the tone of his voice could his mood be known.

"Heal him and then send him back to the training rooms" commanded Keeper Samiel "do not let him show his face here again until he learns how to fight".

A group of rag wearing Human slaves dragged the defeated warrior out of the arena so that their master's command could be carried out. Meanwhile my celestial wife flew up to me and knelt before me.

"I honour my lord with my victories" she said formally before moving to stand behind me.

This wasn't the first fight that she had won for me this day. This was her sixth bout and she had sent six foes limping out of the arena without a scratch upon her. And I had won six bets which had netted me a tidy sum in jewels.

After calming down The Warmaster sat back in his stone throne which would be too cold to sit upon if not for pelts of bears and wolves covering it.

"Your Angel serves you well Lord Gothic" praised Samiel "I wonder of your second wife can fight just as well".

My second wife the Princess was a Fable Hero and a very powerful one at that she was very likely superior to my first wife or at least soon would be. I'd gone to great lengths to train her and I had beseeched Dewi to grant her weapons and armour like my own. Appeasing the Great Serpent had cost me quite a few slaves' lives but he had granted me the boon and my second wife was now dressed in fine black and gold armour. Her armour was also dragon themed but her midriff and legs were exposed due to the armour being little more than a leather skirt covered chain-mail and a breastplate that wouldn't of looked out of place if worn by Xena the Warrior Princess. Still it went well with her dark hair and complemented the figure of her body well.

"Perhaps" I replied "if a worthy foe presents itself".

I noticed that the audience was growing in size and I suspected that the more lethal entertainment was about to begin.

"Then a worthy foe she will have" declared the host of this event.

At the far end of the oval shaped arena a mighty set of doors were pushed open and a lone figure walked into view. The woman was a fine specimen of the female gender with hair as black as a raven's wing flowing out of a helmet with wings displayed on them rather than horns. She also had a bosom that would serve as a fine pillow if I ever got the chance to rest my head upon it. In her hands she carried a deadly looking axe in one hand and a shield. I noticed that attached her belt was a war horn that could be used to declare battle or call for aid. She also rode a fine horse that seemed as proud and strong as it's rider.

"She is called Herja" informed Samiel "she is one of my finest warriors".

Odin had certainly blessed the Warmaster greatly. Not only did the souls of the Viking dead return to life in order to serve him but he also commanded a chooser of the slain. Truly he was a powerful player in the game directed by the gods of old.

"I do not think the mortal would be a fair match for a servant of the All-father" said one my host's concubines.

Samiel seemed to have a taste for the Fey and not the nice kind of Fairy folk written about in children's stories these were child snatching mischief causing type who were known to make those who entered their sacred places vanish forever.

The one acting as an escort for the Warmaster for this event looked like a darker version of the Fae who would join heroes and light magic creatures in their attacks on Dungeons. The light magic version tended appear as Human sized versions of Tinkerbell and the darker ones did as well. The one standings next to Samiel wore a revealing evening gown and had an impressive set of purple butterfly wings sticking out of her back.

Of course I didn't assume that this was what the dark Fay actually looked like. I'd heard about Changeling children of the Fay who would sometimes be left in place of mortal children who'd been kidnapped by the Faeries. They would assume the form of the children they replaced. So it was possible that the Fay before really looked quite different from the image I was seeing now.

"I can handle it" assured the Princess.

A powerful Fable Hero like my second wife should be able to defeat one Valkyrie, after all others of her bloodline had beaten a Horror from the Void known as Jack of Blades compared to such thing a single servant of the All-father should not prove that challenging.

My pet Princess might not yet be that experienced a fighter but she had proven her worth a mere two days ago when my forces waged war on the Hobbs. We'd killed or captured the entire clan and she personally had slain at least two dozen of the foul creatures.

"But why not make things more interesting" decided the Warmaster.

The other gate leading into the arena opened and in walked a four armed monster red skinned and with one massive hate filled eye. Each of the creatures four hands held a different weapon. Its powerful legs supported its great weight as it strode into Samiel's Colosseum. Its huge feet were clawed and those claws looked as deadly as the razor sharp teeth that filled its oversized mouth.

"It is called The Violator" explained the Keeper "the pride of my Beastmasters".

The Beastmasters were in the simplest terms male Dark Mistresses only that wasn't the full story they were the same species however and they did come from the same world. They even had similar abilities. The Beastmasters used torture and magic like a Dark Mistress but not to convert people but to create monsters.

They bred beasts that couldn't breed naturally and shaped existing creatures with their arts in order to create living weapons of war. I'd never sought their services as I had no desire to use their creations because the Beastmasters demanded very high wages and the materials of their trade were very costly to supply.

"No one has ever defeated The Violator" informed my host "however I believe that if your Angel and Princess fight alongside my Valkyrie they might just win".

"What would I win if they do?" I asked.

Samiel seemed to consider my words before replying.

"If Herja survives she is yours and for each of your wives that lives at the end of the battle I will give you one tenth of their weight in gemstones or an enchanted item of their choice taken from this arenas armoury ".

Neither of my wives were that heavy even in armour but gemstones were one of the few things a Keeper couldn't create by turning mana into matter the same was true for magical items. I could create an item which could then be enchanted but nothing I made would be as good as an item crafted by a true blacksmiths and then enchanted by an equally skilled magic user.

Also he was offering two small fortunes if they were victorious and given that my second was Fable Hero (something the Warmaster didn't know about) there was a good chance that they would win although it would be a hard won victory.

"A costly wager" I commented.

The Warmaster waved a dismissive hand.

"You would be risking your wives, that is no small thing. And the gifts you brought me were well appreciated".

Before coming here I'd arranged for a few gifts to be sent to this Dungeon. The Lesser Keeper with antler helmet had transported the goods for me free of charge glad to have some fodder for the arena.

I'd sent not only a few Hobbs (new creatures were highly prized for novelty if nothing else) who could die comically in the arena as well as a few of the cannons that I'd taken from the bandit camp. Rumour had it that the Warmaster had quite the fleet of sailing ships which were used for fast attack raids all along the coast of northern Europe. A fleet like that would make good use of the cannons and I didn't have ships or ports under my control so I had nothing to fear if raided Wales.

"Besides the audience paid a lot to be here" added my host.

Looking around I realised that Samiel must be making a quite a lot of money by hosting these fights. Even if the viewers hadn't paid that much to be here the winners of each death bout could claim the losers gear. Add in the amount of betting going on (both between the visiting Keepers and the more organised gambling run by one of the Lesser Keepers serving the Warmaster)and the Ruler Of Iceland must be raking it in and would continue to do so for as long as people were entertained.

"Then let's give them a show" I said glad that any nervousness I might be showing would be hidden by the Dragon winged helmet that I wore.

Using a Keeper ability to direct their minions with a telepathic urge (which was how Samiel summoned his fighters only with much more control than I had) I psychical directed my two wives to go fight.

My Angel swooped down gracefully landing on the coliseum floor with ease of movement few Humans could hope to match. The Princess simply ran and jumped hitting the ground with enough force that had she not been a Fable Hero she was would of shattered every bone in her legs.

I sensed Samiel whole body move when he saw my royal spouse hit the ground. He must have had no idea that she far more than she seemed. I could tell that he was starting to rethink his bet but he wouldn't change it as if word got around that he didn't honour his bets no one would want to gamble with him. Plus there was something to do be said for being a gracious loser.

The Valkyrie blew her horn which made a flock of ravens appear from thin air. To a creature like The Violator such things would be nothing more than pests but they could be distracting and during a fight to the death even a minor distraction can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

My second wife conjured some aid of her own. Eight ghostly creatures were brought into existence each taking the form of a giant bugs she must of killed sometime in the past they were also nothing but distractions when compared the monster but numbers still counted for something.

I guessed the Warmaster must of mentally urged an attack because the four armed abomination roared and then charged its opponents. The three female warriors scattered and as I watched the Valkyrie move with the same speed and agility as my two wives I wondered why Samiel was willing to give up one like her because even if she survived this fight her would lose her to me.

Perhaps he had some hidden motive but I had no idea what that was. Although I suspected that he was really just showing off by so causally risking the life of a such a warrior he was saying that he could afford much better and wouldn't even notice the loss.

In contrast I had a lot more riding on this bet. I couldn't really afford to lose either wife not when I had so few warriors in my army. Still the bet was worth it as even if my two wives chose a magical item as a reward (assuming either survived) as then they'd be much better equipped for future conflicts.

The Violator had quite a bit of momentum behind it so it couldn't stop its charge quickly enough to engage any of its foes. By the time it slowed down and turned its enemies were already spread about which forced the creature to pick one of its opponents for its next charge.

A flock of summoned birds went for the The Violator's sole eye attempting to claw or peak the oversized orb but the four armed freak was able to bat them aside. The spectral creatures conjured by the Princess charged into battle as well but they were slower than the ravens so by the time they got to The Violator the monster was free of the annoying birds. Free from distractions The Violator had plenty of time stomp on all the summoned bugs destroying them with ease.

So far things were not going well for my team. The monstrous Violator looked ready to tare the three females apart which would be a big shame for as I was counting on them to help build an army for me by first winning me more slaves and then going on to training them.

My Angel wife knowing that her team couldn't let The Violator control the flow of the battle charged into the fight. Her golden glowing blade was a whirl of motion as she half charged and half flew into the flight. The monster howled in pain as the angel blade cut him spilling toxic looking blood onto the arena floor.

The Hero Princess moved to attack as well nearly as fast as my first wife did. Her blade was no were near as powerful as the heavenly golden blade of my prime wife but my second wife made up for that by being physical stronger despite looking quite timid in appearance at least when compared to a member of the Heavenly host.

Meanwhile the Valkyrie had produced a couple of throwing axes. Ranged weapons and spells weren't normally used in the arena unless it was a magical battle but throwing weapons like daggers and axes were allowed.

When my two wives moved to avoid the creatures return blows the raven haired warrior threw both of the axes which buried themselves in the beast's chest. The creature's roar of pain was so loud that many of audience started to cower in fear but they needn't of worried. The Warmaster wasn't going to let paying customers get hurt as he wanted them to come back and buy more tickets.

My Hero wife took a blow and was sent flying across the arena floor. My face was hidden but my concern could be sensed none the less by those with the skill to sense feelings. Which was quite a lot of people around here given how empathy was a rather basic magical power.

However I need not have been concerned my second wife was already on her feet and charging back into the fight while my first wife had swooped behind The Violator while the Norse themed warrior kept their foe focused on her by attempting to pull her twin axes out of The Violator's chest.

"There going to win a little too easily" declared the Warmaster "lets spice things up a little".

I felt the powerful Keeper use his abilities to urge his minions to send some more creatures into the arena. A group of Giant Scorpions were unleashed and my mood went from one of concern to anger. The Warmaster wasn't playing fair.

"You can aid them if you wish" advised the Warmaster.

I could easily switch to my Dragon form go down and singly handedly win this fight but then I'd be showing all the Keepers here just how powerful I was. Perhaps the Warmaster even wanted me to do that he might have his suspicions about me serving one god over a group of gods collectively like he did. If he knew the truth he might even move to destroy me thinking I might be a threat to him one day as I was only going to get more powerful unless I somehow failed my god or was destroyed by another Keeper.

It would be less risky overall to simply teleport down there and then join in without assuming my dragon form but that would be risky as in human form my powers were ranged for the most part and using them was against the rules. On the other hand I did have a cool flaming sword that would make sort work of the Scorpions.

"I'll add another magic trinket to our bet" offered the Warmaster "I have an enchanted cloak that would go well with your armour".

He wasn't going to take no for an answer it seemed so I mentally selection a spell that would help me in this battle and then jumped. A shadowy pair of bat like wings came into existence which allowed me to glide into the fight despite how much I must weight in my armour.

I ignited my dragon blade through sheer force of will and the dark flames did, as I had predicted, end the lives of the Scorpions rather quickly. Their natural body armour was no match for my flaming sword and their insides burned nicely. They had been no threat to me at all despite their great size and stinging tails.

"All to easy" I muttered as I drove my fire sword into the body of the last giant bug.

The Violator also wasn't faring very well either. The beast might be a fearsome creature but it was dumb and slow compared to the warriors it faced. My wives and the Norse warrior were taking the monster down carving it into pieces. It was already dead but its primitive mind hadn't yet realised that it should stop moving and get ready to be buried yet.

"More!" shouted the host of this event "send in more creatures to die for our amusement".

I cursed the Warmaster using words that hadn't been spoken in anger since the Romans last mixed it up with the Welsh Celtic tribes.

More creatures did indeed come to die only this time they were daemons not overgrown bugs. When I saw what kind of daemons they were I cursed again. Fucking Bloodletters of Khorne

Somehow this Keeper had gotten his hand of Chaos daemons. This was both impressive and very worrying. Impressive given that such creatures were hard to capture never mind control in battle. But I dreaded the idea of Chaos having any sort of influence on my world these creatures had to be destroyed quickly before their presence began to corrupt us all.

My Angel wife screamed something about the Bloodletters of Khorne being abominations and for once we totally agreed on something. They were truly horrible things. Their bestial faces, gross bodies and scent of gore made them seem wrong to all my mundane and magical senses.

No longer concerned with hiding my true power I transformed and became the Great Red Dragon once more. I must of looked terrifying in this form but the audience reacted with cheers rather screams of fear. They'd wanted a show and now they had one.

The eight Bloodletters of Khorne didn't react to my new form at all they kept charging across the arena eager to spill blood, eager to cut with their swords and very eager to take my life.

But they would never get the chance. I sent what seemed to a wall of fire right at them which immolated the monsters rather easily given their power as I had poured my hate for the Chaos daemons into the fire I made which had turned the flames a dark red. The hate fuelled flame seemed to consume far more of the daemons that it should have.

Then a great sound filled the arena as my display of power impressed the audience and drove them into a frenzy. Caught up in their admiration for me I returned to human form and soaked up the love of the adoring. I no longer cared that I had shown off and exposed just how powerful I was the admiration was overwhelming.

"Anyone else what a piece of me?" I called out.

No one did. I was too powerful for them to risk it alone and few Keepers would be able to form an alliance quickly enough to threaten me before the arena closed for the day. Next time I might be in trouble but for now I was the champion and they all knew it.

Or that was at least what I had thought.

The ground shook as the Warmaster himself landed on the floor of the arena. Samiel left a small crater when he impacted and dust filled the air for a few moments until the air settled. He looked rather intimating standing before me. His double headed axe glinted in the light of the fire I had created and its jagged edge promised a bloody end. There was no breeze down her but the fur cloak the Warmaster wore moved anyway as if something invisible was tugging on it.

"You have won Dungeon Keeper Gothic" said the Warmaster his voice loud even over the crowd cheering "my Valkyrie is yours and your wives will be taken to the armoury to select their prizes".

The Warmaster took off his own cloak and handed it to me.

"This will serve you well" he explained as I put the cloak on.

The crowd really seemed to enjoy this show it was if they knew what it was leading up to.

"But there is one last foe willing to met you" he informed.

Deathly silence filled the air and I knew what was coming. The other warriors quickly exited the arena as they also knew what was going to happen next.

"No bets, no wagers this is just for honour" declared the Warmaster "we fight until one of us surrenders".

That was all the warning that I got. The Keeper's double-headed axe met my sword and we were fighting before I could could even ignite my blade. Samiel was stronger and faster than me so I was on the defensive from the start. Clearly he was out to prove that he was still top dog around here and I couldn't blame him as I might of done the same.

Samiel's axe began to glow and small bolts of lightening crackled over the surface of the weapon. This feat of magic gave me enough time to ignite my own sword and lightening soon met fire in a display of power that no doubt greatly impressed the audience.

The Warmaster's axe missed a swing and buried itself into the ground. I tried to take advantage of this but the armoured fist of the Warmaster grabbed my blade and his other hand thumped me. I'd never known that a Keeper could be so strong his fist dented my armour my armour that was a gift from a god!

I punched Samiel in return but I did no visible damage to the Keeper who was now recovering his weapon. So I let go of my weapon and used both fists to land as many blows as I could before the Warmaster could react.

This time I got a reaction. Samiel let go of both our weapons and put his arms up in order to block my blows. I quickly realised that he was going to let me wear myself out hitting (moving in full armour isn't easy after all) so I stopped and recovered my blade.

The Warmaster moved faster than he should be allowed to given how much he must of weighted in that metal suit. In a blur he hit me like a steam powered train and I was sent flying into the arena wall. Needless to say it really hurt and unlike in cartoons even if your insides aren't crushed into paste by such an impact you can't recover from a blow like that.

In fact I was starting to black out the world around me going dark. I tried to stay awake but last thing I say was Samiel walking towards me with the handle of his axe aimed right at my face.

"I surrender" I said meekly just before I passed out thankfully before he could hit me again.


	7. Chapter 7

**WarmasterSamiel **

**Your welcome and the Warmaster is indeed an awesome Keeper he's a major power in the North-Western Alliance but he's also on Keeper Gothic's list of 'people who must die screaming' so he might met a nasty end one day. **

**Yeah Gothic is quite powerful but as Master Qui Gon said 'there's always a bigger fish' Keeper Samiel is a very, very big fish **

**Selias **

**Gothic's pride was wounded more than his body. **

**Lootryx **

**I've never heard of this league of legends so no. **

**tylermech66 **

**I'm working on it. **

**Winter Feline **

**I to have noticed a lack of Dungeon Keeper stories. Shame really its got a lot of good crossover potential and I hope to be able to keep this story going for a while. **

**Elbrasch **

**Chaos corruption is a big concern. Any Warhammer fan will tell you that there's evil and then their Chaos which is a lot worse. The Chaos gods eat the souls of those who worship them when the worshipper dies and you start worshipping the Chaos gods when you get corrupted by them. This can happen to some people if they so much see a Chaos daemon. **

**Kyren **

**I could use a Keeper as rival for Gothic on Albion a Keeper who serves Hades could work well. **

**A Keeper can produce other metals it just costs a lot of mana to do so, so its only really worth for it gold which is used to pay creatures. Imps can mine so fast that's it just easier to make them get the metal as while Imps cost Mana too they can perform other tasks as well. **

**As for the Green Hand thing. That might work to keep forces mobile in your own Dungeon but you don't seem to grasp how big the world really is. Its just to much for anyone person to keep track of everything which is why Keepers employ Lesser Keepers to oversee their Dungeons. **

**Also remember that Keepers can enter another Keeper's Dungeons using the Dungeon Hearts if given permission so if an ally comes under attack a Keeper can help and they can bring troops with them so there is some value to being in a big alliance. If Gothic's Heart in his Earth Dungeon came under attack Keeper Black would send aid and vice versa assuming Gothic is there when he gets asked for help. **

**Plus I want to keep the Keepers organised in feudal sort of way as it makes it easier for me to write this story. **

**I like your Dungeon ideas and I have used some of them for example the underground forest attracts elves but Gothic wouldn't want other dragons around. I'll see if I can fit in some of your other stories. **

**Samiel wasn't that bothered by losing the bet he didn't lose much really and his pride was mollified by kicking Gothic's ass to show that he was the top dog as it were. **

**The Valkyrie was a gift to Samiel and his to do with as he pleased. Also given that Gothic has an Angel I think that if any god was offended by the idea of their servants being used in such a way it would God with a big G for Gothic taking one of his Angels as a wife. **

**As for the Princess the spells in Fable Three are unlocked with gauntlets you get on the road to rule so she shouldn't really have that many spells but she will end up unlocking them as that's what training rooms are for. She can learn spells the old fashioned way as well like the Warlocks do. **

**Mayhem296 **

**Thank you. **

**Lord Edric.**

**I'll see if I can fit you in or at least get you mentioned. **

**Dungeon Keeper Gothic. Part Seven. **

**Gothic's Dungeon. The Throne Room. The Mistpeak Mountains. Albion.**

A bolt of lightening erupted from the palm of my hand and raced across the throne room. One of the many Imps in this Dungeon was struck and for half a second the tiny creature's skeleton could be seen before its false life expired. Two more Imps then popped into the room and took the dead body away, perhaps to fed it the Hell-Hounds.

"What troubles you my lord?" asked my angelic wife as she carefully moved to stand behind my throne.

It was always a good idea not to be in my line of sight when I was in a bad mood.

"I was humiliated" I reminded the woman "the Warmaster beat me so easily. Despite the power I have obtained I was defeated by a mere barbarian!"

That wasn't a fair statement really. The Warmaster was more than he appeared to be. No Keeper survived long if he didn't become a power to be reckoned with, yet my pride had been wounded and that couldn't go unavenged.

The problem was that avenging myself would be suicidal. Samiel would destroy me utterly should I be foolish enough to wage war upon him. He was more powerful, than me, more skilled in combat and he had access to far greater resources than I did.

I sat back on my throne and tried to think of a way I could increase both my power and resources quickly. There were lots of opportunities back on Earth and here in Albion it was just a matter of coming up with a course of action. I needed a resource I could harvest or an object of power I could obtain.

"Princess!" I called out summoning the Fable Hero to my side "How goes your operations here found anything useful?"

Perhaps she had some information that would help with my search for some sort of advantage.

"I've been leading your Skeleton Warriors on raids all over Mistpeak. The Hobb tribes have all been gathered in order to be sold and what's left of bandits groups have feld the area".

The Hobbs were selling surprisingly well in the slave markets. They were funny little creatures and it was rather amusing to watch them die in the arenas. I knew how to make more of them so I would be able to supply a limited amount to other Keepers.

Which would net me a tidy profit.

As for the bandits that had plagued the Mistpeaks they were either dead or had fled as the Princess had reported. Their camps had been emptied and stripped for usable resources, which hadn't been anywhere near as much as I would have liked.

Those that survived were either the camp followers who were now my slaves or in the case of the men they'd been turned into Skeleton Warriors. If they were lucky. As for the unlucky ones they got to spend time with the Dark Mistresses before they were sold at the markets or if they died they often also became Skeleton Warriors.

"Your Imps are hard at work claiming the caves and caverns that the Hobbs once called home" she also reported.

My Dungeon under the mountain range was becoming truly massive and I didn't really need more territory right now but if I remembered right those caves contained an the remains of an underground city which could be rebuilt. But that would be a waste as I had no one to populate such a city. It was such a shame that there weren't many Drow for sale they'd be perfect to inhabit that city once it was restored. Perhaps one day I afford to pay for the services of a Keeper who twist life into new forms and have make me something Drow like at least but to pay for such a thing would cost me far more than it was worth right now.

I also remembered that from that ancient city there was cave leading to Morningwood a part of Albion that was haunted by ghosts and Hollow Men. It seemed that a lot of souls weren't passing on to their after life in these parts which could be a problem for me as I had no desire to enter an endless war against the Hollow Men but I could let them overrun Albion either, not if I wanted to rule it.

If only there was some way of putting those souls to rest or even to harvest those souls. There were bound to be creatures out there with a use for the souls that animated the Hollow Men. I would have to find someone who dealt with the issues of after lives and...

Oh wait I did know someone. I had an Angel for a wife and she was from one of the many versions of heaven that were out there. Good humans went to heaven when they died so she might at least have some idea of how the process of moving on to an after life worked.

I quickly explained about the existence of Hollow Men to my first wife and she did indeed have some answers for me.

"My sword could end such creatures but if they exist in the numbers you suggest then it would make no real difference in the long run".

She was right as people were dying all the time so even if she destroy or banish the souls animating Hollow Men new souls would replace them. No something else was needed to deal with that problem, assuming that she didn't know of a way to harvest souls.

"They could also be banished by destroying the area they haunt with fire".

That would be tricky as a lot of that area was swampland. Even in my dragon form I couldn't burn that place down. Well I could burn the graveyards but marshes don't burn.

"I was thinking of harvesting those souls" I told the old ball and chain "or perhaps I could find away to control the Hollow Men".

She seemed shocked by such ideas.

"Sending them to their eternal rest would be the most righteous action" she said "however I do not know where they would go. The light of the heavens does not reach this world and I sense no Hell for the wicked to be cast into".

If there was no after life for the souls to move onto then it was just a matter of time before the dead numbered enough to overwhelm the living and then Albion would become one big tomb.

"If they are denied their rest then it is no wonder that they seek to destroy the living" mused the Angel "Spirits are not meant to linger to long for they grow angry and lash out at the living who they feel jealous of, it is a kind of madness".

There did seem to be something fundamentally wrong with this world. The dead were sticking around and things like the Crawler seemed to be just waiting to invade. Stuff like this was suppose to be sorted out by the gods as far as I knew. But if there were no gods to deal with these problems then I would have to deal with them.

The Crawler didn't worry me that much. That horror had been dealt with by a single Fable Hero and his or her army. Since I had a Fable Hero and an army I felt that I could deal with the Crawler, although at some point I should make my way over the ocean and see if I could keep the being contained with magical wards but that could wait as for now I needed to focus on the Hollow Men as there was no point worrying about Crawler if the dead took over this world first.

My Angel wife was rubbing my shoulders, something she knew would help to keep me calm and she needed to as I was feeling very stressed.

"There is something I can suggest, my lord" offered my first wife "Souls can be harvested and consumed by some classes of demons. There are certain mid ranking Demon Lords who barter for souls they might offer you something in exchange. The souls of the dead are worth less than those brought from the living but they are not without value".

Demons. I really hated demons. But still.

"Do you know of such a demon?" I asked.

"In the past I have dealt with a demon called Vulgrim".

Vulgrim. Now that name rang a bell.

He was a demon merchant in the Darksider games and if my wife knew him then that meant she might be an Angel from that world. If so that would explain why she was so tough but I doubted that she was from that world as she was small to be one of those Angels. Perhaps this was a different version of Vulgrim or the demon merchant might have access to different worlds like I did.

"Vulgrim might be able to give you the means to harvest the souls of the dead in exchange for information or a percentage of the souls you harvest. And if he doesn't I will kill him".

My wife wasn't that powerful in angelic terms but she had an angel blade and a suit of armour which boosted her fighting skills so even a mid ranking demon wouldn't be a match for her one on one.

"He will trade souls for artefacts and powers" my wife said telling me what I already knew.

My patron god had already gifted me with a good set of armour and a great weapon I'd even gotten a nice cloak but it wasn't enough. I need more. A good shield wouldn't go amiss for starters.

Perhaps doing business with this trader demon wouldn't be such a bad idea.

"Can you summon him?" I inquired of my first wife

"Yes my lord" she answered "Although I am loathe to do so I can not refuse you. I shall need an altar, candles, some incense, a very sharp knife and a goat".

That sounded messy. I hoped that it would worth it.

**The Fort. Mourningwood. Albion. **

My forces had easily taken the fort and the few soldiers that had been left here had been slaughtered by my Skeleton Warriors in mere moments as my Imps had created a tunnel which had bypassed the fort's defences. The soldiers had died before I had even appeared on the surface and their bodies were being burnt to prevent them form using by the Hollow Men.

The Imps couldn't move about in the sunlight so by the time they could start repairing this fort the enemy would start to appear. Not that this really mattered as I didn't care how many Imps got killed while they tried to repair this fortress they were constructs of magic after all not real people.

I watched as my Skeleton Warriors manned the walls readying their guns and arming the mortars. These Skeleton Warriors had been bandits in life (this could be seen in the fact that some of them still wore the tattered remains of their clothing) and many of the bandits of Mistpeak had been renegades who had left the army so it made sense that they knew how to use the mortars.

And it was a good thing that they did no know how to make use of the mortars. I needed a lot of souls for my new plan so the Hollow Men would have to be destroyed in great numbers if I was to collect those souls. Only by using such weapons could I hope to harvest the needed souls in such a way that it remained profitable. I couldn't afford to bring my army here as that would leave my very large Dungeon undefended so in order to harvest the souls I needed what troops I had brought up needed to do destroy a lot of Hollow Men.

My new wife who'd I won as a part of a bet came into view riding a large wolf like creature. She spoke some form of ancient version of Scandinavian but as she was bound to my service via the Dungeon Heart (as were all that served me) I could under what she was trying to say even it wasn't exactly what she was saying.

"My lord I have scouted the area" informed the raven haired warrior "an army of the dead approach. They are marching towards this fort".

How odd the sun hadn't gone down yet the Hollow Men shouldn't be active. I also didn't understand why they were marching they tended to just appear and start attacking people.

"They will be here in less than half an hour" the Valkyrie added "perhaps longer as the ground is soft and their chariots are moving slowly".

Wait what? Chariots? Since when did the Hollow Men use chariots?. This made no sense. I had to check out what was going on.

Running the direction my third wife had pointed me in I transformed into my dragon form and took to the air. It didn't take me to locate the army and it wasn't made up of Hollow Men but it was made up of dead people.

My keen dragon eyes told me that the army followed the style of the Roman Empire for the most part but I saw some Greek influence as well which took the from a three headed dogs scouting ahead of the dead soldiers and some of those soldiers looked like they came right out of 300. This army even had siege towers and catapults.

This army was technological inferior to mine but that didn't matter as while my cannons were superior to what this Keeper had they were also very far away so that didn't really help me.

Arrows flew up into air but the few that made it to this height missed me by a fair distance so nothing stopped from inspecting the enemies heading towards my troops. I quickly spotted what I suspected to be the leader and he had had spotted me.

"_Hello Keeper"_

The voice wasn't carried on the wind it was being sent right into my mind. This other Keeper was speaking directly to me.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"_I am Kyren" _said the rival _"I serve my master Hades"._

Hades as in the Greek god of death and the underworld? Why would a Keeper serving Hades be here?

"Why are you here" I questioned wanting more information.

"_I have come for the souls my god demands". _

Well that explained things. This Kyren served a god of the dead and had an undead army he could even be a powerful Necromancer. Like me he must of figured out that the souls which animated the Hollow Men could be harvested.

"_Leave this place" _ordered Kyren _"I command you to leave. These souls are belong to my god now, they are not for you"._

That was the wrong thing to say. My pride had taken a big hit recently so I wasn't going to let myself be bossed around.

I ignored any further attempts at telepathic communication and headed back to the fort. I turned back into my human form before I even touched the ground but the fall did me no harm as there was a spell to slow a fall.

"Prepare for battle!" I shouted out "to the walls!".

My Skeletons were vastly outnumbered by the incoming army but they had a fortified position and lots of guns. Add in the mortars and they could do a lot of damage to the enemy. I didn't think that I could hold the fort but I could make the enemy pay a great price in order to take it.

The Imps were now appearing to fix what they could which meant that the sun was low enough in the sky as to not bother them which would also mean that the Hollow Men would soon appear making this a three way battle.

"Keep an eye out for Hollow Men" I told my wives as they drew their weapons "they will attack both sides".

And likely their skeletal bodies would be ground into dust between my forces and the warriors of Kyren, but they could still be an annoyance.

I ran up to the walls ready to use my spells to aid in the fighting but the enemy wasn't here yet, well Kyren wasn't but the Hollow Men were appearing. Thankfully my undead soldiers were proving to be far better shots than the Hollow Men.

The new device on my armour had an impressive range and the when the shattered bodies of the Hollow Men exploded the souls which had animated the dead things came to me to be stored in the device. I'd need to collect hundreds to get anything worthwhile from Vulgrim but at the rate the Hollow Men were appearing that wouldn't be a problem.

I was even getting souls from my own destroyed troops as the Skeleton Warriors who didn't have guns were charging into the fight as the original battle plan had stated. I should of ordered them back but I saw no reason to as they wouldn't do me any good against Kyren's army. If the enemy got inside the fort the battle was lost anyway and I could always make more Skeleton Warriors.

"This isn't a battle we can win" commented my Angel wife who was somehow able to remain attractive even while in battle "we should leave".

Yes we should but I wasn't going to leave yet I didn't want this other Keeper to win too easily and I needed to collect more souls anyway.

The sound of horns filled the air and I heard the barking of three headed dogs. The Roman/Greek style army was now charging into the fight using their numbers to destroy the Hollow Men by simple weight of numbers.

"Keep firing those mortars!" I screamed over the noise of battle.

Despite the fact that my dead troops were throwing a lot of fire at the enemy were still moving. The enemy archers were preparing to fire even as entire groups of them were reduced to fragments by the artillery. They were after all already dead they had nothing to fear and they cared nothing for loses they just got into position and they let lose their weapons.

Arrows rained down the fort but I ignored that as I'd been shot at point blank range before and all that did was bruise me.

My Skeletons however weren't so fortunate and they started to drop dead... well deader all around me.

The three females who had married me (for different reasons) got into cover as while they were tough they weren't that tough and the arrows could actually end their lives.

However the battle was not yet over more Hollow Men appeared and they fought the Roman/Greek themed army but the Hollow Men were slow and clumsy when compared to my Skeleton Warriors and the dead under Kyren's command were even better fighters then mine. In fact this might be because they had actually been Roman and Greek warriors at some point. If so they had a lot more fighting experience than my warriors who had mostly been bandits and other renegades when they had been alive.

Soon the Hollow Men stopped appearing and another salvo of arrows destroyed my remaining Skeletons. I'd really thought that this battle would last longer but it wasn't to be I was simply outmatched.

I'd been on the surface for less than an hour and now I had to leave again. I was really not having a good streak of luck these days.

"_I am not your enemy" _said the voice of my rival for control of this land _"but I must have these souls". _

I could imagine that he did indeed need these souls. He'd need them to replace lost troops and fuel necromantic magic. That wasn't a type of magic I knew much about but I knew enough to know that harvesting souls was important.

"_It is over" _said the voice of Kyren _"flee or die". _

"Your just going to let me go?" I asked

"_I must have these lands but I care nothing for nothing east of here" _assured the other Keeper _"stay away from my lands and I will not bother you". _

Keepers aren't the most trustworthy of people but I actually believed Kyren. If he was after souls then marching his army to invade the lands I controlled would be a waste of his time as there weren't many living people left in the Mistpeak Valley and the mountain range around it. I could move to take Brightwall easily enough and that would give us a boarder to stick to.

I considered my other options. I could turn into a big scary dragon and fight this army which could get me killed or I could let this Kyren lay siege to the fort in the hopes that my spells could cost him a lot more troops but that would just get me and my wives killed. Neither of these foolish ideas would buy the time I would need to bring reinforcements here so both plans were a complete waste of lives. Granted death would be a temporary inconvenience for me but I would sort of miss my wives if they died.

Also this Keeper didn't want a fight so there was really no sense in pushing the issue. He was clearly more powerful than I and pissing him off would be a very bad idea.

What I should be doing right now is heading back to my Dungeon in order to start upgrading its defence because I was now in competition for this world and it was a contest that I really needed to win. The only reason I hadn't already left was pride but I'd been humbled once and I really had no desire to be humbled again.

"Very well" I told the other Keeper "this swamp is yours".

I broke off contact and left the walls. The dead Romans could have this fortress.

"There will be other ways" I told myself before I ordered my wives to follow me home.

I comforted myself by reminding myself that I had come here to harvest souls (something that I had accomplished) not to fight a war. Most of my troops were far away and had I actually been prepared for a fight things surely would have gone better for me.

I used my powers to collapse the tunnels that led to my Dungeon and then as a group we teleported back to the Dungeon Heart.

It was time to come up with a new plan and perhaps it was time to leave this world for another. That or I would at least have to prepare to fight for it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Terran14 **

Don't forget he beat that Cailleach worshipper as well. That Keeper was very dangerous but Gothic won. Cailleach was just a sore loser and used divine wrath to avenge the death of her Keeper.

Not to worry he's going to start winning a lot more now.

**Selias**

His setbacks aren't as bad as they look. He's growing stronger not weaker despite having his ass kicked once my the Warmaster. Kyren only forced him out of Mourningwood so that was only a minor defeat.

**ApocPen**

The name rings a bell but I'm rather behind on my video games.

**Tylermech66**

Dewi is a dragon god he wants different things than the likes of Hades. Dewi rewards victory. Gods are as complex as any group of diverse people they need the same things but they don't always want them same things.

**Lord Edric**

Southern California is a long way from Wales and the North Western Alliance is focused around the Atlantic ocean so its doubtful DK Gothic would ever hear of your Keeper. Not unless you decided to invade another world.

**Kyren**

That's pretty much what I intend for Keeper Kyren. He's not interested in Albion as a conquest he's there for the souls, and the Crawler as well for reasons of his own.

**Lootryx **

If I ever get the time I will.

**Dungeon Keeper Gothic. Part Eight. **

**Albion. Brightwall. The Academy **

Well that had been... unexpected.

I'd just had the odd experience of encountering a teenage version of myself, or at least that is what I thought had just happened. There was no way to be sure since he had disappeared.

The only things I knew for sure was that the young man had looked like me and that he was also partnered with Hermione Granger for some reason.

A Hogwarts student version of myself perhaps?

That was possible as given what I knew about the multi-verse there could be an near infinite number of me out there in other universes, so the chances that there was a me out there that attended a version of Hogwarts were quite high.

I could accept that rather easily. I could even accept the fact that this Hogwarts student version of myself had just tried to kill me. I didn't blame him for that as he'd of had no way of knowing that it was me under this armour and given that I my army was attacking the town he happened to be in I could also accept him attacking my troops. After all I would of done the same thing in his place.

What I was having trouble dealing with was the fact that a Hogwarts student version of myself had been in Albion. That made no sense whatsoever, because as far as I knew travelling to other realities was ,while possible, extremely difficult. You couldn't just cast a spell and magically appear on another world you needed a gateway, or at least a portal of some sort.

On top of all that this other version of myself had attacked me with lightening bolts he'd held in the hand. That was not the kind of magic a Hogwarts student could use.

It just didn't make sense unless he had learned the magic of other worlds. If he had then that meant he did indeed have a spell which allowed him easy access to other worlds.

Before I could dwell more on this matter my angel wife came over to me. Her face looked a little deformed as if she was having an allergic reaction, but that was impossible as angels don't have allergies.

Using one of my many Dungeon Keeper magic spells I healed her and her normal angelic appearance was restored.

She then bowed before me and said.

"I failed you my lord, some Witch cast a wicked spell and marred my face. I was distracted by the pain. Then the boy Warlock stole my sword".

Hermione Granger was not merely 'some Witch' she was magic user of great skill, or at least one of more skill than most of her kind could claim.

The fact that the 'boy Warlock' had taken my wife's Angel Blade intrigued me a little. The sword was very potent when used against demons and other evil creatures.

Had he known that or had he simply taken the weapon in order to disarm a foe?

"It matters not" I told the wife "they were not here for us and I doubt they will return. As for your sword, we can simply get you a new one. This world is full of magical weapons".

If that younger looking possible version of myself was in fact me from some other universe, as strange as that sounded, then he would not try to face me again I was too smart to something so foolish.

Still it would be best to try and find out what he and Hermione Granger had been doing here.

"Question my new slaves," I ordered "find one who knew why those Witches were here and then interrogate them".

"As my lord commands" replied the winged humanoid.

It might have been better for me to attend to the matter myself but I had important work to do, and a good leader knows when to delegate tasks to his minions.

On the subject of minions the sky was now starting to darken which meant that very soon the little brown creatures known as Imps would arrive and begin the process of claiming this town for their Keeper.

They would start by sorting out all the captured people. The Imps would magically transport all the caged humans to the processing centre in my dungeon built into the Mistpeak Mountains.

There the slaves would be sorted by age, gender and appearance. Those who were too old to be useful would be imprisoned in cells were they would undergo the process that would turn them into Skeleton Warriors.

Younger males both men and boys would be later be sold as slaves to other Keepers while the more attractive and younger women I would keep for myself as I still intended to create an all female army.

This would involve much work for the Dark Mistresses. The leather wearing torturers would spend days, perhaps weeks, carefully modifying the women. Using magic and psychology, they would shape the women into the warriors I needed. Many slaves died or were driven utterly made by this process but enough survived to make it worth while, and I could always buy more slaves.

Once the women were ready mentally and physically they would be trained to fight. The same would be true for the female children only they would be cared for in crèche until they grew up enough to become warriors.

The wasn't was the best way for a Keeper to build an army but I simply had to have attractive female minions.

At least I'd been able to get a few female Warlocks, or Dark Witches as they called themselves, to work for me. Like their more common male counterparts Dark Witches were attracted into a Keeper's service by the knowledge he had to offer.

This was why taking Brightwall academy was so important, as once the Imps claimed the academy the wealth of information here would draw dozens if not hundreds of Dark Witches into my service.

However that wasn't the only reason why I wanted this academy under my control.

The catacombs beneath this building were a ready made dungeon. Once the place was secure I would create a new Dungeon Heart and then I would assign one of my loyal followers to rule the dungeon and Brightwall as one of my Lesser Keepers.

As an added bonus the place was full of Hollow Men, and I greatly desired to harvest their souls so they could be traded to the demon merchant Vulgrim.

The Keeper who had driven me out of Mourningwood had claimed all of the souls there, and while I had collected enough to appease Vulgrim I would need many more souls before the trader would give me what I sought.

Vulgrim had many magical artefacts for sale and he knew ways to enhance my fighting abilities. If I was ever going to avenge my humiliation at the hands of the Warmaster I would need enhanced fighting abilities.

One of the Dark Mistresses was waiting for me further into the academy, and she had something to report.

"Keeper, the remaining humans have fled into the catacombs".

Well they were likely dead then. That was no great loss, there were always more slaves to be found.

It was then that I noticed a ladybug flying around the room. The insect seemed to be trying to find somewhere to hide, which was odd behaviour.

When the small creature landed in the dyed purple hair of the Dark Mistress I reached for the insect and crushed it between my fingers as it annoyed me and for some reason the counter on my gauntlet, which kept track of the number of souls stored within it, went up by one.

Why did a bug have a soul? The answer came to me quickly. One of the wand wavers who had been here must of transfigured someone into a bug.

The Dark Mistress mistook my action and took as a sign that I wanted her on her knees, but this wasn't the time or the place for such things.

"Not know we have work to do".

I sensed her disappointment so I said.

"Join me in my quarters later".

It always paid to reward such useful minions and the Dark Mistresses were very kinky.

The Princess of Albion suddenly appeared holding a plain looking warhammer which hummed with power and as she passed it to me I could feel that it bonding to me.

"Went back to the Sanctuary I see".

The Princess had been meaning to return there in order to collect her weapons for sometime now, she'd just never gotten around to it.

"I thought a hammer would be more suitable for smashing Hollowmen" she explained.

That made sense as Hollowmen were animated piles of bones for the most part and so they didn't have anything you could stab. I could destroyed them with magic easily enough but it was important for me to learn how to use a rarity of weapons.

As a bonus the living weapon would change to better suit its wielder faster if it was used more and I was about to do a lot of fighting so this was the best time to start wielding it.

"Follow" I ordered.

With two of us fighting the work of gathering souls would go much faster and the Hero Princess would gain lots of experience fighting the near endless hordes of Hollowmen waiting for us.

Since there was now no reason to delay further I headed down and found the townspeople who had fled into the dark getting slaughtered. The sight was rather amusing but slaves weren't free so I ran into battle with the intent of saving a few lives.

The hammer I was using did a good job of smashing bone and crushing skulls, soon the counter on my gauntlet showed that I had collected the souls I needed to purchase some basic upgrades but that wasn't anywhere near enough.

Leaving the Dark Mistresses to collect any survivors the Princess and I went deeper underground.

More of the white orbs, which were the animating force which brought the Hollowmen to 'life', appeared creating more foes for us to fight but they were less than effective against us.

My new toy swept the undead things aside and any blows they landed were ignored as my dragon armour protected me. Shots rang out but these attacks proved to be pointless efforts.

This was not true battle this was farming. The Hollowmen were nothing more than a ripe crop of souls for me to harvest.

Soon that changed, as more powerful versions of the Hollowmen appeared and they offered me a real fight rather than mere amusement. However they didn't last long enough to be a real concern.

Then the largest Hollowman I had ever seen appeared. In life the body must have been a giant of a man and in death it was armoured quite excessively. Oddly that didn't stop it moving with almost supernatural speed.

In one move that combined a sweeping action while jumping I pulverised the things exposed skull but that barely slowed down the larger more heavily armed Hollowman.

Twin blades tried to remove my head in return but the rusty iron weapons broken upon contact with my helmet.

Calling upon my superhuman strength I rugby tackled my impressive foe and we both went flying off the edge of the platform we'd been standing on. As planned I transformed into my dragon form and glided down to a lower part of the underground chamber before transforming back. The oversized Hollowman couldn't slow its fall and it broke apart upon impact with ground.

Transforming like that was tiring but I didn't have time to rest. More orbs came zooming in and more Hollowmen soon appeared.

How many of these things were there? How had the Hero King bound so many angry spirits to one place? And could I use the same method?

These were questions I would gladly pay small fortunes to have answered, and perhaps they would be answered as my Dark Witches would comb every book and scroll down here during their research.

My Princess wife came crashing down on the hovering platforms and she used her powers to create a blast wave of transparent energy which scattered the Hollowmen sending many of them flying in the abyss below.

Using the spell 'Recall Weapon' I summoned by hammer to me and kept fighting. This battle was becoming less fun but I wasn't going to quit. Winning was all that matter, well that and harvesting more souls.

During a break from the Hollowmen destroying the Princess and I came across a large golden door. I knew these doors required special keys but since the double doors were made of actual gold I had away around that.

Transforming once more into my dragon form I breathed fire and melted the doors, it took awhile but eventually molten gold covered the floor and the Hero Princess raced inside to find, not unexpectedly, a magic sword. Fable was famous for the sheer amount of magical weapons lying around.

The sword was too small for me and rather gaudy looking what the gold hilt and encrusted jewels, but I knew someone who did need a new blade and it would suit her far better.

After transforming back into human form I said.

"Take it to my angel, she needs a new weapon".

Ever eager to follow my orders my second wife rushed off to complete her new task leaving me to go gather more souls.

Battling the remaining Hollowmen alone was rather dangerous but I wasn't concerned, as if even if they killed me I'd simply reform next to my primary Dungeon Heart within a few hours. However that didn't mean I wouldn't avoid death if I could, dying would suck even if I did just return to physical form a short time later.

There were weapons that could kill an immortal being like a Keeper but they were few and far between, and often simply being run threw wouldn't get the job done. Really the only reliable way to kill a Keeper was to destroy his or her Dungeon Heart, and even then Keepers could escape death by linking to another Dungeon Heart.

I didn't get far before more Hollowmen appeared and while I did need to use my hammer I simply couldn't be bothered to fight them all.

While switching my warhammer to my left hand I called upon the awesome power of a Dungeon Keeper which allowed me to throw a few explosive fireballs. I then followed that up with devastating lightening attacks before switching hands so my weapon was back in my right hand.

Then I had to fight with my hammer as unlike living enemies Hollowmen don't retreat no matter how foolish carrying on an attack is they just keep coming until you demolish them. Still as tiring and repetitive as the fighting got I kept moving, and more importantly I kept winning.

By the time I got the part of this underground kingdom that had once been home to the Music Box, a relic I now owned, I was bone tired but I could not allow myself to rest just yet.

Focusing my power and mind I began to work the magic that would create a new Dungeon Heart. The red sphere appeared in the ground I then fed some of my magic into it and it began to glow red, and then slowly it started to grow in size.

Once the Heart was strong enough for me to connect with it did so and I created a few Imps. Then I started the work that would turn this place into a new Dungeon.

All that work would drain me and I'd have to get a goodnight's sleep afterwards but that could wait,

**Brightwall Dungeon. The Academy. Albion.**

The process of transforming the Academy and its rather large basement into a Dungeon hadn't taken as long as I had though it would. Nevertheless it would have been simpler to get to someone else to do it. Yet I still hadn't given command of the place over to a Lesser Keeper.

I really should have by now as my own Dungeon would be suffering due to the lack of oversight but I didn't care as the books in the Academy were a wealth of information I wasn't yet ready to hand over to someone else.

What had me most engrossed were the books about Earth. The discovery of them had come as a great surprise and I simply couldn't put them down despite the fact that I knew more about my home world than these books could ever tell me.

The author was the last Guildmaster and while the books I had piled in front of me were not the originals they had been carefully copied so the information the books supplied was accurate.

Guildmaster Weaver had written a dozen about my world and they weren't in any order. It was as if the writer had simply sat down and talked to his informer.

This led to books which often jumped from subject to subject rather quickly and some subjects, like my world's history, took up many pages were as other subjects, like 21st century technology, hardly got a mention.

As to the reason why these books about Earth intrigued was how the author had come by this information.

The Guildmaster had described the young man who supplied the knowledge in some detail. Including his name, which was the same as mine, and a physical description, which was also the same as mine. The informer had even been born in the same city as me.

This didn't mean another version of myself had been in Albion hundreds of years ago. My name was a common one and Cardiff was a big city so lots of boys with my name could have been born in the same year I was.

But as I kept reading I became more and more convinced that it was me. Which mean that yet another version of myself who had been to this world

had supplied this information. That or at some point I was going to travel hundreds of years into the past.

There could have been a simpler explanation but I doubted as there were too many similarities between the informer and myself. The author had even directly quoted his information who had gotten his quotes from famous people native to my world, and I had used some of the very same quotes in my own records.

"Good read, my lord?".

The question brought me back to reality as my Princess wife entered the room.

"Yes its a very good read" I replied.

Normally I disliked being interrupted, but I knew that the Princess wouldn't be bothering unless her reason was a good one.

"News?" I asked.

"Keeper Kyrenhas sent you a message" she reported.

Had he now, how interesting.

"And what does Keeper Kyren want from me?" I inquired.

"Its an offer not a request," my second wife corrected "Keeper Kyren says that he has no desire to conquer this land. Once he has harvested the souls he intends to leave Albion, but not before he deals with the Crawler. Then he will leave everything here to you".

"How generous" I commented.

"Indeed" replied the Hero Princess, who failed to detect my hint of sarcasm "Kyren will pacify the rest of Albion for us and then deal with the threat the Crawler brings. Once he is gone the conquest of this land should be simply enough".

Her tone was happy which was odd because this was her home that Kyren was going to devastate in his quest to harvest souls. That Keeper's undead army was superior to the Hollowmen and would likely sweep any human resistance aside with ease.

Still if Kyren's message was truthful the end result of his actions would benefit me greatly, but I couldn't understand why this Keeper would simply leave lands he had conquered. That wasn't in the nature of Keepers.

Well not unless Albion was worthless to him. If it was worthless then I was dealing with a very powerful Keeper one that must have a vast dungeons elsewhere.

However if that was true why would the Hades worshipper simply streamroll over me as well?

Perhaps his patron god cared not for conquest. Hades might be making it more worth while for Kyren to simply harvest souls than to conquer lands.

That actually made sense as in the lore Hades was given dominion over the dead, so it could be that Keepers who served him couldn't rule over the living either this would mean that once Albion was cleansed of the Hollowmen that Kyren would have no further use for the place.

That he was practically handing the land over to me on a silver platter also made sense, as it made it unlikely that I would seek revenge for my earlier defeat nor would I seek to hinder his efforts if in the long run they benefited me.

Yet I could but ask myself two questions.

'Why leave a potential enemy alive if you don't have to?' and 'why let him grow stronger thanks to your efforts'.

I could understand why Lord Kyren would fight the Crawler. No Keeper would permit a Lovecraftian Horror to wipe out a world as such an action might one day threaten all Keepers.

Keepers like myself knew better than most just how dangerous things like the Crawler could be, and such a threat would unite us in away no amount diplomacy ever could. Arrogant bastards we might be, but we were practical sometimes and nothing united humans (Keeper or mortal) like an outside threat.

Of course once that threat was gone we would naturally turn on each other, but that was something to worry about later because if you didn't there wouldn't be a later to deal with.

In frustration I closed the book I was reading. My thinking was getting me no where and asking myself these questions was pointless. My thoughts were starting to repeat themselves as well.

All I could really do was wait and see while preparing for the worst that could happen.

To do that I needed to spend some time fortifying my domain, and that meant returning to my Dungeon now rather than later. These books would have to wait.

"Come on we are leaving" I told the Princess "I have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it in".

Author Note: Well that was shorter than I had expected but at least the story is progressing now.


End file.
